


adverto

by managician



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, UPDATE taichi gayed it up, lots of fluff. and hot chocolates. they don't smooch yet but soon. maybe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-05-25 12:30:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14977205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/managician/pseuds/managician
Summary: adverto: verb. to turn towards, direct one's attention to, attract.Koushiro had always been a very curious boy, eager to discover the answers to every question that he could think of.The full range of his feelings towards Taichi Yagami was the one mystery that he wouldn’t mind not solving right away.(11/13: Chapter 6 is now up!)





	1. 01 - beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! First of all, thank you so much for checking out my story! It's my first Digimon work, and I really wanted to write some cute thing involving Taichi/Koushiro, because they seriously deserve more love. I already have... a second chapter? Sequel? Planned out. But first of all I want to see if people would like this story to begin with...
> 
> Enough of the rambling, haha. Enjoy your reading!

 

Taichi frowned, scratching his neck nervously and looking at the sky with annoyance, almost regretting having agreed to his teacher’s request without giving it a second thought. He held the folder he was carrying close to his chest, trying to shelter it from the sudden pour of rain that had graced the streets.

 

Why the heck did he have to bring a sheet of homework and notes to someone in a grade lower than him, anyway? Why couldn’t their own classmates take care of it? Were they all so busy that nobody had the time to drop by his house and hand it to him? Taichi guessed that it was possible, but still, geez.

 

Not that the kid would’ve even needed to do the worksheet to begin with.

 

After all, this was Izumi Koushiro that they were talking about. All the students at the school, including people from different grades, knew just how smart he was — always staring at the bright screen from his laptop and typing enthusiastically, instead of playing around like everyone else.

 

So what if he missed stuff one day because he was sick? It wouldn’t really affect his grades too much, would it? But the teacher had insisted a lot about the utmost importance of this exact worksheet, and how would it be vital for acquiring the necessary knowledge for the class’s upcoming test.

 

Or something like that.

 

It sounded convincing enough to Taichi’s ears, even though he didn’t understand half of the words the teacher used, and the soccer team wasn’t having practice today, so he easily offered himself to bring the papers to Koushiro’s house. The teacher thanked him a bunch of times, and gave him a folder and Koushiro’s address, which wasn’t so far away from Taichi’s own house.

 

He didn’t _have to_ do this, but he could be of help, so why not do it? It wouldn’t kill him or anything.

 

Besides, he would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t a little curious about Koushiro. He hadn’t ever seen him talk to anyone, always focused on his tech devices and what not, so it made Taichi wonder if he even had any friends to begin with.

 

Probably not.

 

And if there was one thing Taichi was proud of, it was his ability to make friends with possibly anyone you could think of. He’d been told that he was fun and easy to talk to — and he could say that he was, at least, acquainted with even the quietest kids in his class.

 

So maybe his natural charm would work with Koushiro, as well. He couldn’t possibly be as shut-in and cold as the rumours made him to be.

 

But, as he stared at the heavy cloudburst, Taichi could only sigh with dread. He’d been waiting there for a long ten minutes, safe and dry under a balcony, hoping that the storm would clear up soon enough, and then he’d be able to keep on walking.

 

However, it became obvious that it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. In fact, the intensity of the rainfall had increased, and even if he wasn’t getting wet with the rain, Taichi could feel his whole body going numb with coldness.

 

Curse that he decided to walk out of his house without taking a jacket that morning. There was nothing that he could do about his freezing legs, but maybe he could have saved his arms from suffering the same horrible fate.

 

He let out a sneeze, and he knew that at this rate, he was going to catch a cold.

 

Taichi checked the paper where the teacher had written Koushiro’s address, just to be sure. Alright, so he was almost there — only two streets away. It’d be harder to get there, and running really fast wasn’t a good idea unless he wanted to slip and fall into one of the many puddles of water that were covering the ground.

 

Keeping a brisk pace would have to do.

 

He adjusted his hold onto the plastic folder, and then left his sheltered spot, trying to walk as quickly as possible. He was thankful that there was nearly nobody outside, because he was so focused on not tripping over his own two feet that he could’ve easily bumped into someone by accident.

 

Finally, he reached Koushiro’s building, which thankfully provided him cover from the water.

 

Taichi ran a tired hand through his messy hair, now a bit puffier than usual due to the rain. His shirt and shorts were completely drenched beyond salvation, but at least the binder with the papers was still mostly dry.

 

Letting out a sneeze, he kept checking the numbers on the doors, skipping to the next one until he found the number of Koushiro’s house. He pressed on the doorbell while attempting to make his hair look as presentable as possible.

 

The door made a creaking sound as it slowly opened. A small, pale, red-headed figure stood at the other side, half of his body hidden behind the door, staring at Taichi as if he’d just grown two heads. His cheeks and forehead were burning up, in contrast with the rest of his skin.

 

“...Yagami-san?” he trailed off with uncertainty, recognizing the other boy as the captain of the soccer team, but not understanding why would he be standing in front of his house.

 

“Hey, um— Koushiro.” he gave a very poor greeting. “I came to give you this. Today’s homework.” he then said, extending the folder that he’d been carrying towards Koushiro, who still looked a bit lost at the situation.

 

“...Ah, thank you. But you’re not from my grade, how come you…?”

 

“Well, everyone in your class was too busy, so—”

 

His explanation was cut short by a terribly loud sneeze. Koushiro’s eyes widened, as if he was only now realizing that Taichi didn’t have an umbrella with him, which implied that he’d come all the way here under the heavy rain.

 

“Oh, um— Feel free to come inside,” Koushiro muttered, opening the door and motioning for Taichi to walk into the house.

 

Taichi smiled gratefully, nodding and taking up the offer. He let out a pleasant sigh when the warmth from the interior of the room slowly washed over him. He sat down and took his shoes off. Koushiro quietly closed the door behind him.

 

Taichi followed him to the living room. Koushiro’s house was simplistic enough, with a few family photographs hanging here and there. Everything was remarkably ordered and tidy, in contrast to Taichi’s house, though.

 

“Please sit wherever you’d like,” Koushiro’s deep voice snapped Taichi out of his thoughts. “...Would you like something to drink?” he asked, almost hesitating, like he wasn’t too sure of what was he supposed to be saying at this moment.

 

“Sure. I could use some hot chocolate right now.” Taichi chuckled, barely holding back another sneeze. He plopped himself on the couch,  rubbing his hands together.

 

Koushiro observed him with slightly pursed lips. He took the folder from Taichi’s hands and disappeared from the room. He came back a few moments later, holding what appeared to be a blanket.

 

“Please use this to maintain yourself warm.” he simply stated, handing it over to Taichi.

 

“Ah, thank you!” Taichi gave a goofy grin, already wrapping himself in the blanket. Koushiro stared at him for a few seconds before politely smiling back, and then proceeded towards the kitchen.

 

Taichi decided that the rumours were very much exaggerated. Maybe his speech pattern was a bit (okay, a lot) more formal than what the kids of his age would normally use, but he didn’t really come off across as cold? Just slightly distant, if anything.

 

The boy took another look around the room. There were two different couches, a small coffee table in front of him, and a big TV. His parents weren’t home, right? Did they both work or were they off somewhere? He wouldn’t be surprised either way.

 

He threw a glance at the window on the wall, contemplating the storm. The clouds had gotten even darker, and there even were rays of lighting falling down.

 

So he’d be stuck at Koushiro’s house for a while.

 

Just as Taichi was beginning to grow bored, Koushiro returned to the room with two steaming cups of hot chocolate.

 

He kneeled down to place the tray on the coffee table, but then he got up rather hastily, which made him lose balance and stumble forward. Thanks to his quick reflexes, Taichi managed to untangle himself from the blanket and catch Koushiro before he collided with the carpet.

 

“Are you okay?” Taichi quickly asked, voice tainted with worry, because he had forgotten that  Koushiro was still sick.

 

“Yes, I— I’m fine, thank you. I’m still feeling rather unwell, but I hadn’t expected to slip like that… I apologize for startling you.” Koushiro rushedly replied, averting his eyes.

 

Was it just Taichi’s imagination or had his cheeks gotten redder than before? He hoped he wasn’t feeling _too_ bad...

 

“Don’t worry about it.” Taichi reassured him, helping him to sit on the couch next to him.

 

They drank their chocolate in silence until Taichi started a conversation again.

 

“Well. As I was saying before, everyone in your class was… busy. So your teacher came to our class to ask if someone could bring these papers to you. And I said yes, but then the rain caught me by surprise.” Taichi explained, making a very accentuated pout at the end.

 

“...Ah. I see. Thank you for taking the time to. You really didn’t need to…” he trailed off, unsure.

 

“No problem! I just figured that if I could help you, why not do it?” Taichi beamed. “Besides, I kinda wanted to meet you, you know?”

 

“How so?” Koushiro asked, raising his eyes from his mug and looking at Taichi with genuine curiosity.

 

“Because…” Taichi made a vague gesture in the air. “Well, everyone’s always saying that you come off a bit rude, and you’ve always looked a bit lonely?” Almost as if realizing what he just said, Taichi scrambled to try to fix his previous words. “But I didn’t think that it was true! I wanted to come check by myself, and…”

 

He tilted his face to meet Koushiro’s gaze, and Koushiro was almost taken aback by the sincerity that his brown eyes held.

 

“I think that you’re a kind person.” Taichi finished his speech, taking a sip of the chocolate. “I mean, you even made me chocolate even though you’re sick…”

 

Koushiro felt his heart go warm.

 

...It was the first time that someone told him that.

 

Not cold, not distant, not shut-in, not rude, not indifferent.

 

Kind.

 

“That’s… Well, I’m— Thank you. I’m happy to hear that…” he whispered, trying to prevent himself from blushing any further, while attempting to keep his voice steady and to not show just how much Taichi’s comment had affected him.

 

His reaction seemed to satisfy Taichi, because he simply laughed heartily while giving Koushiro a pat on the shoulder.

 

“No problem, really.”

 

Taichi was surprised because Koushiro kept thanking him all the time. He’d never met someone who said ‘thank you’ over hearing what Taichi had to say about them.

 

It was one of the things that made Koushiro be himself, though, Taichi decided.

 

They’d known each other for a couple of minutes and yet, as both of them finished their drinks, they decided that they liked each other, too.

 

Taichi felt a bit weird asking it, but he guessed that a direct approach would work better for the kind of person that Koushiro was. “Want to be friends?”

 

“...That sounds nice, Yagami-san.” Koushiro answered awkwardly, but smiling softly while doing so.

 

“Taichi. Taichi’s fine.”

 

“...Taichi-san, then.”

 

“That’ll work.” Taichi accepted. Because, really, Koushiro was too polite for his own good.

 

Taichi set his now empty cup of chocolate down and, as if he just got a great idea, gave his new friend a huge grin.

 

“Have you ever played soccer?”

 

***

 

Over the course of the weekend, Koushiro found himself dealing with an unexpected dilemma. A very huge and complicated one, at that.

 

He knew next to nothing about _feelings_ . He’d always had troubles understanding other people’s emotions — at least, from a, well, _emotional_ point of view, to put it in a way. He could analyze the logic behind someone’s actions, but the problems arose because Koushiro had come to understand that feelings did not always follow the logical path.

 

So there he was, sitting awake in his bed in the early Saturday morning. Endeavouring to figure out whether the warm, fuzzy feeling that invaded his chest upon recalling his conversation with Taichi the previous day was merely happiness over making a new unexpected friend, or if it carried, ah…

 

_Romantic_ connotations.

 

Koushiro groaned, letting his face rest against the pillow. He seriously needed to settle down and work on his people skills if he couldn’t even distinguish and properly assess his _own_ feelings.

 

A faint blush made its way to his cheeks as he remembered his conversation. After the initial awkwardness, they both had ended up talking about their respective hobbies.

 

Taichi was really passionate about soccer. He related one of his matches as if it was some sort of epic historical battle, with lots of dramatic pauses and sudden yelling to punctuate the most tense moments. He really made it sound ridiculously fascinating to Koushiro, despite the fact that the game basically consisted on twenty-two people running after a ball.

 

Koushiro intended to briefly mention his interest in all kinds of technology and leave it at that, as even he had noticed that he tended to bore people when he went on a rant about computers. To his shock, Taichi said that all of that ‘stuff’ sounded really ‘cool and smart’, and Koushiro ended up accidentally ranting like he had exactly wanted to avoid.

 

But Taichi didn’t look bored. It was clear that he was struggling to keep up, and he probably didn’t even understand half of the things that came out of Koushiro’s mouth. And still, that goofy grin of his didn’t leave his face one second.

 

Koushiro had never met someone who had paid attention to him for so long, who actually, actively attempted to comprehend him.

 

...It felt nice. Knowing that, if he had something to say, Taichi would listen.

 

It made him feel wanted.

 

Koushiro groaned again, fully burying his face in his pillow, unable to hide the crimson tint rushing to his face. This wasn’t contributing in the slightest to his already lost cause.

 

Then again, he’d already known that feelings were hard to sort out...

 

And, even if he didn’t understand it entirely, the warmth that his heart was enveloped in was still comforting.

 

...Maybe he only needed to give himself some time.

 

Koushiro had always been a very curious boy, eager to discover the answers to every question that he could think of.

 

The full range of his feelings towards Taichi Yagami was the one mystery that he wouldn’t mind not solving right away.

 

***

 

Taichi yawned lazily, hand stumbling to find the damned alarm clock that had snapped him out of his peaceful slumber. He managed to hit it, and the beeping sound stopped.

 

He was almost tempted to stay in the bed for what was left of morning, but Hikari, who was already awake, burst through the door of their bedroom and climbed up the ladder. She shook Taichi’s legs playfully, making Taichi grunt and try to kick her off, until the boy understood that all his chances of going back to sleep had been annihilated the moment Hikari set her foot in the room.

 

Still yawning and rubbing his eyes tiredly, Taichi stepped down from the bed. While he glanced at the clock, Hikari was rummaging through their closet. She eventually found a fluffy white coat, which Taichi happily put on, because despite his best efforts, he still managed to catch a small cold yesterday.

 

He was happy, though. He wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

 

The fact that he was thinking about his meeting with Koushiro probably showed on his face, because Hikari gave him an odd look before she started giggling.

 

“What?” Taichi asked, confused and mildly annoyed at Hikari’s outburst. Sure, his hair was kind of funny to look at when he still hadn’t fixed it up, but Hikari had already seen it like that thousands of times. Why would she be laughing now?

 

“Nothing, nothing.” Hikari quickly dismissed him with a knowing smile. “Let’s go have breakfast!” she cheerfully said, already heading towards the kitchen.

 

Taichi blinked twice before shrugging it off. He picked up two eggs from the fridge and started boiling them.

 

“How did your meeting with Koushiro-san go?” Hikari suddenly piped up.

 

“I already told you as soon as I came back. I gave him the homework, we talked for a while and got to know each other. Nothing much.” he answered nonchalantly, placing one egg and a piece of bread in each of the two plates.

 

“I’m glad you became his friend.”

 

“And why’s that?” Taichi asked, setting the plates and cutlery on the table. He sat down at the other side of the table, facing Hikari.

 

“Because you look happy. I’m sure he’s happy, too.” Hikari merely said, whispering a ‘Thanks for the meal’ before plunging her fork down.

 

“I mean, yeah. People are happy when they make friends.” Taichi agreed easily enough, stuffing his mouth with food.

 

“I bet that you’re the first friend he makes in a long time. Take good care of him, okay?”

 

“Well, sure.” Taichi opted to go along with what Hikari was saying, giving her a lopsided smile. “I hope he joins the soccer club. He’s so smart, if we had his brain and my speed we’d make the perfect team.”

 

“Maybe you can convince him.” Hikari offered, and really, Taichi would say that she seemed almost _amused_ at the situation. Was there something going on that Taichi wasn’t aware of?

 

Taichi nodded with determination, and they finished their food in a pleasant silence.

 

***

 

The weekend slipped by fast enough, and Taichi found himself waking up late, rushedly dressing up, fixing his uncooperative hair and having a really quick, barely cooked toast for breakfast. He proceeded to make a run for the school gates, nearly getting run over by a car on his way there, and he still didn’t make it to class in time, because his maths teacher was so ridiculously strict that arriving a single minute late wasn’t acceptable. 

 

Not a great way to start a Monday, definitely. At least he had gotten over his cold. And the teacher hadn't thrown him out of the class as punishment, so that was good, too.

 

Sora, his deskmate, gave Taichi a sympathetic look as the teacher screamed at him about the importance of punctuality.

 

“Don’t mind, Taichi. Everyone is late at times.”

 

“I know, but why did he have to be so pissy about it? He didn’t need to go off like that...” Taichi whined to his friend.

 

Sora seemed to be about to say something back, but the teacher ordered them to flip their books to a certain page, and their conversation died down.

 

Taichi’s mind drifted off for the rest of the class. He wasn’t remarkably good at any subject in school, but he specially despised maths. It was just a long, indecipherable string of numbers, tied all together with signs, in a jumbled equation that made no sense to him. He was better at languages, at expressing himself with words.

 

He opened his notebook and fiddled with a pen in his hand, if only to act like he actually cared about this class whatsoever.

 

Koushiro liked this stuff, probably. Computers had a lot of… number things, right? But there were also letter things. How did Koushiro call it the other day? Cody language? Yeah, something like that, right?

 

When the class was over, he copied Sora’s notes, reading them carefully. To his pleasant surprise, he actually could sort of understand them.

 

The rest of the morning went by excruciatingly slow. After another three hours of classes, where Taichi slowly started to get more focused, morning lessons were finally over and the students had their lunch break.

 

“Get to our usual spot, I’ll be right there.” Taichi said.

 

“Where are you going?” Sora inquired, casting him a puzzled look.

 

“There’s someone I want you to meet. I’ll be right back,” Taichi grinned before dashing out of the classroom.

 

He made his way towards the hallway with the 4th grade classrooms. Which one did Koushiro say he was in? 4-B, maybe...?

 

He didn’t trust his memory too much, but he decided to enter anyway. Some students eyed him weirdly, but Taichi paid no mind to them as he scanned the classroom. Soon enough, he spotted the bright red patch of hair that he’d been looking for.

 

“Hey, Koushiro!” he yelled across the classroom, running to his desk.

 

Koushiro raised his head, lightly startled. His lips curved upwards in an amicable smile. “Taichi-san,” he acknowledged the other boy.

 

“For a moment I thought I barged into the wrong class.” Taichi laughed. “Anyway, wanna have lunch with me?”

 

“...Would that be okay?” Koushiro asked unsurely, pretending not to notice how everyone was gawking at Taichi.

 

“Yeah! I bet Sora will love to meet you, don’t worry.”

  
“Alright, then. If you say so.” He stood up from his chair, grabbing his lunch box and trailing after Taichi.

 

Koushiro tended to have lunch inside the classroom, eating quietly by himself. He did go to have lunch outside sometimes, but he usually didn’t get too far away and he was looking at his laptop all the time, either way, so he was a bit unused to the school’s playground. Taichi guided him to a nice spot, where a girl with ginger hair was leaning against a tree. Her face lighted up when she noticed the approaching pair.

 

“There we are.” Taichi announced.

 

Koushiro stepped in front of the girl, feeling somewhat nervous, but her kind smile helped to calm him down. “Nice to meet you. I’m Koushiro Izumi, from 4th grade.”

 

“I’m Sora Takenouchi, from Taichi’s class. Nice to meet you too, Koushiro-kun. I didn’t know you two were friends.”

 

“We met each other Friday. I went to give him the homework that he missed, remember?” Taichi intervened.

 

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot about that.” Sora commented sheepishly. “Now that I think about it, I think it’s the first time I see you without your Pibook.”

 

Koushiro’s face went red and both Sora and Taichi chuckled good heartedly. The boys sat down, with Koushiro between Taichi and Sora. Both friends were constantly bickering with each other, and even though Koushiro mostly sat in silence, enjoying his meal and laughing at the pair, he didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.

 

“...So Kenta totally screwed up our match. Seriously! I don’t even know why did I listen to him, his strategy sucked.” Taichi complained, chugging down the last bits of his sandwich.

 

“Maybe we need a better strategist.” Sora muttered, crossing her arms, as if she was deep in thought.

 

“You’re right. We need someone like Koushiro!”

 

“M-Me?” Koushiro perked up, confusion clear in his eyes.

 

“Yeah, I bet you could figure out how to get out of a pinch better than Kenta.” Taichi stated. “Right, Sora?”

 

“Perhaps.” Sora turned to look at the younger boy. “Koushiro-kun, have you ever tried any sports?”

 

“Not really. I haven’t found myself particularly interested in them… But Taichi-san’s explanation of a match did sound quite entertaining…”

 

“You should give it a try, maybe you’d like it.” Sora suggested.

 

“I’m not sure of that, Sora-san.” Koushiro objected. “My physical aptitude is less than the average, and I would probably drag the team’s pace down with my, ah, lackluster moves.”

 

“Nah. Half of the guys on the team don’t even know how to dribble without tripping over their own feet. Anyone can do better than them.” Taichi muttered, clearly not happy about the team’s skills.

 

“I’m still not confident…”

 

“That’s alright. Why don’t you come to see us today? We have practice. If you see us actually play, you may have an easier time deciding what to do.” Sora encouraged him.

 

“Ah, well, that’s…”

 

“Pretty please?” He threw his arm around Koushiro’s shoulder. “I’ll even make an amazing shoot, just for you to see!” Taichi told him, wearing a tenacious grin.

 

How could Koushiro refuse to that?

 

“Okay… I’ll come watch you play.”

 

Taichi squeezed his shoulder, loudly celebrating, and Sora clasped her hands together in delight.

 

Koushiro gulped.

 

What had he gotten himself into, _exactly_?

 

***

 

Koushiro spent the two hours of lessons after lunch time wondering what would Taichi and Sora’s plays be like.

 

By the sound of it, Taichi was a forward. And a very good one, at that. He seemed very confident about his skills.

 

He couldn’t think of Sora’s position. At first glance, he would say that she might be a midfielder, because she sighed in annoyance and agreement at Taichi’s comment about how a lot of people in the team had trouble with dribbling properly. But some defenders also carried the ball forward, right? He could picture her as a defender, as well.

 

Or maybe she was a forward. Like Taichi.

 

Koushiro was eager to find out.

 

As soon as the bell that indicated the end of classes rang, Koushiro found himself quickly stuffing all his books inside his backpack, wanting to get outside as soon as possible. He smiled fondly when he realized that he hadn’t touched his laptop in all day.

 

Finished with packing everything, Koushiro started to run towards the classroom’s door, but he got cut short when he bumped into someone.

 

Koushiro rubbed his head. “Ah, I’m very sorry, I didn’t—”

 

“Hey, if it isn’t Koushiro-kun…” the other person muttered, and Koushiro felt himself tense up, because he recognized the voice, and it wasn’t associated with pleasant memories.

 

“Eriko-san, I apologize for bumping into you. It wasn’t my intention. Now, please, if you excuse me—”

 

The girl interrupted him for a second time. “You’re not going anywhere.”

 

Koushiro didn’t need to look ahead of him to know that someone was probably keeping watch on the door. He had nowhere to go. He gulped, feeling the disgustingly familiar cold sweat dripping down his neck. However, he put on his best emotionless mask and feigned apathy towards the situation.

 

“Is there anything you need from me, Eriko-san?”

 

“How come you’re friends with Yagami?” she asked coldly, _mockingly_.

 

Koushiro’s eyes darkened, but he stood still, refusing to react to her taunting.

 

“Did he feel pity for the worthless nerd and decide to act like he cares about you? How cute,” she commented, voice sickeningly sweet. “Almost as if you two are friends or something.” she turned to face the two girls that were still waiting at the door. “Look, Koushiro-kun believes that someone likes him!”

 

The two girls giggled.

 

The boy clenched his fists, feeling anger bubbling up inside him. He wanted to talk back, but it would probably result in a slap, or worse. Maybe if he just let her go on, she’d be done soon…

 

_I don’t have time for this_ , Koushiro reminded himself, he couldn’t just stall until she grew bored. He needed to get to soccer practice. He’d told Taichi and Sora that he would come, he couldn’t fail them now.

 

His attempt to walk forward was met with Eriko’s fist. She punched him in the face, with enough strength to make him lose his balance, effectively throwing him to the ground.

 

She kneeled down, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. “Are you listening to me or not? Say something!”

 

“Yes.” Koushiro curtly replied. He could feel himself slowly panicking, not knowing what to do. If he tried to free himself from Eriko’s grasp, she may start doing something worse… And there was no one to ask for help, either...

 

***

 

Taichi and Sora gave each other a worried glance. Their practice had started a few minutes ago, and Koushiro still wasn’t here.

 

“Maybe he had to go home early…” Sora wondered. She’d been looking forward to Koushiro coming to see them play, so her shoulders were slumped down in disappointment.

 

“We would’ve seen him walk out. He’s still inside the school.” Taichi pointed out, throwing a pass at Sora. The ball got kicked with more strength that he intended.

 

“I’m gonna look for him.” Taichi yelled out, already on his way, sprinting to the building before Sora could complain.

 

“I hope it’s nothing serious.” she whispered to herself.

 

Taichi dashed to Koushiro’s classroom, thankful that no teacher had the chance to reprimand him for running in the hallway. He was about to burst in, but he stopped himself when he heard a loud voice coming from the inside.

 

“Good. If you’re listening, then you understand, right? You know that Yagami wouldn’t ever _want_ to be friends with someone like you. You should go back to your laptop and stop making people feel sorry for you, Koushiro-kun—”

 

Taichi slammed the door open without thinking.

 

The girl who’d been talking fell silent. The other two that were guarding the door got startled by Taichi’s sudden appearance, and they moved to the side.

Taichi lips were pressed on a thin line. He was giving the girl who had Koushiro pinned to the ground the deadliest glare he could manage, and his muscles were tense, holding back pent-up anger. It was hard, really hard, to not launch himself at the girl right now and force her to let Koushiro go.

 

“Leave him alone.” Taichi demanded, voice dark and strained.

 

Koushiro himself looked quite terrified of the situation, frozen in place, because he’d always seen Taichi smiling, and laughing so much.

 

All the traces of that friendly smile were gone.

 

Taichi looked so serious.

 

Scary, almost.

 

Eriko sighed, finally releasing her grip on Koushiro’s shirt.

 

“Don’t get so worked up about it. We were just having a talk.” she shrugged, meeting Taichi’s vicious stare with bored eyes.

 

“Get. Out.”

 

“Sure, sure, senpai.” Eriko muttered. She waved at a stupefied Koushiro, walking past Taichi, with the other two girls following after her.

 

As soon as they were out of sight, Taichi offered his hand to Koushiro. The younger boy took it, and Taichi helped him to get back up on his feet.

 

Both of them stared at each other. Koushiro was about to start apologizing, because he made Taichi feel worried and he even had to leave his soccer practice to come check over him.

 

But then, Taichi raised his arm, gently letting his hand rest on Koushiro’s bruised cheek, thumb brushing over it very softly. His eyes were kind and filled with concern, nothing like the despicable look that he’d been giving the bully a couple of moments ago.

 

Koushiro went red at the tender touch, but that was the least of his concerns right now. “Taichi-san…?” he tentatively called out at him.

 

Taichi seemed to snap out of whatever stupor he had gotten into. He frowned, poking Koushiro’s cheek lightly. It was only red for now, but it would surely turn into a big purple bruise. She really had hit him hard.

 

“Come with me.” Taichi requested. “I think our coach will have an ice pack to help with that. And you still want to see us practice, right?” he gave his trademark huge grin.

 

Koushiro couldn’t help but smile back, even though his cheek was starting to hurt a lot, now that the muscle was relaxed.

 

Taichi slowly dropped his hand from Koushiro’s face. Koushiro almost found himself wishing that he hadn’t pulled away.

 

But he had no time to dwell on it because, mere seconds after, Taichi had pulled him into a hug.

 

Koushiro was positive that his whole face matched the shade of his hair. He stood stiff, unsure of whether he should move away or hug back. Or if he was just fine, standing like that.

 

...He’d been avoiding his parents’ hugs ever since he found out about _that_.

 

“You… Koushiro, I think you know this already. But nothing of whatever she said is true. I’m your friend because I like you. Okay?” Taichi suddenly spoke, very quietly.

 

“...Okay.” Koushiro hesitantly said, nodding against Taichi’s chest. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to relax into Taichi’s warm, soothing hold. Taichi’s fingers were ruffling his hair gently, and Koushiro cherished the touch.

 

So maybe he was touch-starved, too. ...Just a bit.

 

He’d have to work on that as well.

 

Koushiro slowly untangled himself from Taichi’s hug.

 

“Thank you, Taichi-san.” he whispered, voice barely audible.

 

“No problem, Koushiro.”

 

They calmly made their way to the training field, no more words spoken between them. They weren’t necessary.

 

And as Koushiro stared at Taichi’s back, he could only think of how grateful he was for having met him.  



	2. 02 - basium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _basium: kiss._  
>  If Sora had looked a bit more closely, she would have noticed the faint red that colored Taichi’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *flops down to the floor* ...I'm alive! I was about to make this into a series with new works, but somehow I felt like just turning this story into a multi-chapter thing would work better.
> 
> It's the moment you've all been waiting for, they smooch for the first time! Well, maybe it doesn't happen exactly like you'd been waiting for... But it still counts, right?
> 
> Enjoy the cuteness, and as always feel free to leave reviews or message me on my tumblr @taishirou. Now onto the chapter!

Koushiro stared at the clock with apprehension. There were only roughly ten minutes left.

 

Sora had managed to steal the ball from the opposite team. She was panting heavily, scanning the field with a quick glance.

 

From Koushiro’s position, outside of the actual game, it was easy to see what action should Sora do next. Taichi was wide open, barely shadowed by a clearly exhausted defender.

 

She must have noticed it, too. She sighed before dribbling past a couple of players, sending a slightly sloppy pass in Taichi’s direction.

 

The other boy caught it effortlessly. He braced himself, bringing the ball up the furthest he could, barely avoiding a defender’s tackle. 

 

Koushiro held his breath as Taichi steeled himself. After a loud cheer from Sora, urging him to shoot, the boy took a step back and kicked the ball as strongly as he could.

 

The goalkeeper stretched his arm to stop it, but the ball flew past him, scoring a point for Taichi’s team.

 

“You did it, Taichi!” Sora exclaimed, running to give him a high-five.

 

Koushiro politely clapped, along with the few other people that were watching their practice match. 

 

There was barely any time left. Taichi’s team played in the defense for the remaining minutes, to maintain the lead, and finally, the whistle that indicated the end of the match resonated in the air.

 

Most of the players on Taichi’s team collapsed out of exhaustion, dropping their bodies to the floor without a single care in the world.

 

Taichi and Sora, instead, walked towards the small, simplistic grandstands, where Koushiro and a couple of parents had sat to watch their match develop.

 

Koushiro stepped down onto the field, clapping again at the two talented soccer players.

 

“You both did an excellent job. Sora-san, your control of the ball is exceptional. You managed to run past nearly all the players you faced against, and your passes were highly accurate.”

 

Sora averted her eyes, a light tint of pink covering her cheeks, as she was unused to the praise. Rubbing her neck with a hint of sheepishness, she gave the boy a grin. “Oh, thank you, Koushiro-kun.”

 

“You’re welcome.” Koushiro replied, smiling back. 

 

“Hey, what about me?” Taichi asked, pointing at himself with an almost pouty expression.

 

“Your performance was also brilliant, Taichi-san. Your kicks held the right amount of power and aimed for the goalkeeper’s weak spots. Your ability to slip away from the defender’s shadowing is remarkable, as well.” 

 

Taichi blinked at him before crossing his arms behind his head. The pout hadn’t left his lips, and his eyes were squinting slightly. He actually seemed to be giving thought to Koushiro’s words.

 

Sora stared at his friend curiously. After a few seconds of silence, Taichi spoke.

 

“So… My shoots were awesome, right? And I can run very fast. Is that what you meant?”

 

“I... suppose that’s a simpler way of putting it into words…” Koushiro agreed, giving a small nod.

 

Taichi grinned and Sora merely shook her head, chuckling lightly.

 

Right after that, the team’s coach approached the trio, patting the pair of soccer players in the back and handing both of them a water bottle.

 

“I’ve noticed you’re constantly coming to our practices and matches, boy.” the coach said, addressing Koushiro with an affable smile. “Are you interested in soccer?”

 

“I… Ah, well...”

 

“He’s Koushiro, our friend.” Taichi helpfully intervened, noticing his hesitation. “We met him and told him to come see us play to decide if he wanted to give soccer a try or not, since he was never big in sports.”

 

“Yeah. By the way, have you decided already?” Sora asked after taking a sip from her bottle.

 

“I’m not completely sure yet...” Koushiro answered truthfully, scratching his chin in consideration. 

 

The soccer club had, formally, one training session per week, which was on Mondays. However, Taichi and the coach consistently scheduled unofficial practices almost every day, and a good amount of people from the team attended to them. 

 

Koushiro had grown into the habit of assisting to nearly all of them. They weren’t interesting all the time, granted, but he brought his trustworthy laptop with him, in case that he got bored of watching.

 

It was a nice change, considering that he tended to spend most of his time shut inside his dark bedroom. The early spring sun was warm, but not as hot as to be too bothersome, and the gentle breeze that always seemed to run across the park where they practiced most days made up for it, anyway. 

 

His parents were very happy to find out that he had made friends, and greatly encouraged him to go hang out with them. Koushiro was very close to pointing out that it wasn’t that big of a difference, as he did exactly the same as before, only somewhere else. But he didn’t feel like arguing with them, not when they looked the happiest that he’d seen them in a long time.

 

And so, slowly but surely, Koushiro had been getting to know both the sport and his new pair of friends. This official match, arranged for a Friday evening, was the first one that Koushiro saw them compete in.

 

“Aww, come on. You’ve been watching us for two weeks now! Can’t you make up your mind already?” Taichi whined, turning to look at Sora, as if seeking her support.

 

“Taichi, don’t rush him. He’ll decide whenever he wants to.” Sora scolded him instead, wearing a disapproving frown.

 

“I know, but he could at least try it just a bit. Right?” Taichi insisted, this time focusing his intense gaze on Koushiro, practically pleading him to agree.

 

“That’s true. If you don’t like it, you can simply quit. We wouldn’t mind if you don’t want to play it.” Sora added.

 

For a moment, Koushiro felt inclined to believe that Sora possessed some sort of psychic hidden ability, because she managed to address Koushiro’s main worry. 

 

He deemed that it’d be quite bothersome to keep up a friendship with someone who didn’t have any common interests. Perhaps, he was overthinking it more than necessary, but he feared that if he ended up finding out that soccer just wasn’t his thing, the still rather new bond that he’d forged with Taichi and Sora would fall apart.

 

Koushiro really treasured his friendship with them, so it was only natural that he’d be concerned about it, specially taking into account his poor social experiences up to that point.

 

“Yeah. I mean, it’d be cool if you liked it, so we could all play together, you know? But it’s cool if you don’t, too.” Taichi reassured him.

 

“Alright. In that case, I guess I could indeed attempt to play…”

 

He barely had time to finish his sentence before Taichi grabbed his wrist, enthusiastically dragging him towards the now deserted soccer field.

 

“Wait!” Sora cried out. “We need a ball to play!”

 

“Oh.” Taichi frowned, stopping dead in his tracks and nearly making Koushiro bump against his back. “Yeah, you’re right…”

 

The coach, who had been silently observing the exchange, gave a hearty laugh. “That’s the spirit, boy!” 

 

He turned away, rummaging through his bag, until he found what he’d been searching for. He threw the spherical ball at Sora, who caught it neatly between her hands. 

 

“Thank you!” Sora grinned, bowing down slightly before running off to catch up with Taichi and Koushiro.

 

They walked up to the middle of the field.

 

“What will we be doing?” Koushiro inquired once they settled down, with a bit of nervousness tinting his voice.

 

“We’re tired from the match, and you’re a beginner…” Sora observed, pursing her lips until her face lit up. “We could practice simple passes. It’s easy to do and it shouldn’t tire us out further. How about it?”

 

“But that’s lame, Sora!” Taichi loudly complained. “I want to do something fun, to run around. We should try to steal the ball from each other and then shoot!”

 

“Taichi, remember what the coach always tells us. No heavy exercise after a match.” Sora retorted, clearly not about to indulge Taichi’s suggestion.

 

“It’s not heavy, we’ll just be jogging a bit!” Taichi pressed on, trying to convince his friend.

 

“Um…” Koushiro bashfully interrupted their discussion, making the pair immediately turn their attention to him. “I believe Sora-san’s suggestion sounds more appropriate, considering your exhausted condition and my experience with sports… Or, rather, lack thereof.”

 

Sora gave Taichi a smug smirk, while Taichi stared at Koushiro as if he’d just been brutally backstabbed by his own mother. 

 

Eventually, the captain of the soccer team merely shrugged, shoulders slightly slumped forward. “Alright, you two win. Let’s get to it, then!”

 

Sora and Taichi moved to his sides, and it took Koushiro a moment to understand that they were supposed to position themselves in triangle, to facilitate the passing.

 

“Here goes!” Sora called out, gently tossing the ball in Koushiro’s direction. As always, Sora’s passes were very accurate, and Koushiro barely had to move to receive it properly. 

 

The young boy faced Taichi, attempting to calculate how to throw the ball so that the other wouldn’t have trouble catching it. His short height was proving to be more of an issue than he’d expected, as he realised that if he kneeled down, he and the ball were practically of the same size.

 

And there was another small problem: the ball was so  _ ridiculously round _ that Koushiro didn’t have a single clue on where to kick it. It was a silly inconvenience that hadn’t ever crossed his mind, but now it had become his biggest nuisance.

 

Not wanting Taichi to get impatient, Koushiro decided to wing it and hope that luck would be on his side. 

 

His pass was quite clumsy and the ball ended up rotating in the opposite direction that he’d aimed for. It lacked strength, as well, because Taichi was forced to take a few steps forward to reach it.

 

Koushiro sighed, feeling terribly self-conscious, cheeks flushed in shame. Of course he hadn’t expected to get it right on his first try, but that just had to be the worst pass in Japan’s soccer story. Wrong trajectory and wrong amount of power put into the kick. 

 

Sora, again, as if noticing his inner turmoil, gently spoke up. Her voice was soothing, but there was a hint of amusement in her eyes. “Don’t worry, Koushiro-kun. When Taichi first kicked a ball he ended up hitting the coach in the head, and—”

 

“We don’t talk about that!” Taichi loudly protested, embarrassment creeping into his voice. “What about the time you almost sent a ball flying directly towards a girl’s boobs?”

 

“Taichi!” Sora exclaimed, her face growing red. “That was one time, and it was an accident! You’ve hit people in the head more than once, and willingly, too.”

 

“...I can’t really fight you on that.” Taichi backed off.

 

They all stood in silence for a few seconds before abruptly bursting out in laughter. Koushiro just let out a small chuckle at the pair’s antics, while Sora and Taichi, who were clearly in the middle of recalling the funny memories, could barely contain their joy.

 

“Okay, let’s keep going, guys.” Sora said, after her fit of chuckles died down. She wiped a nonexistent tear from her eyes before urging Taichi to pass the ball to her.

 

Koushiro stared at Taichi closely and realised that he was hitting the ball with the side of his foot, and not with the tip, like Koushiro himself had done. So that was the trick… Even if the ball was still stupidly round, if you hit it like that, there wouldn’t be any issue.

 

Feeling slightly dumb for not noticing sooner, Koushiro eagerly awaited Sora’s pass. He stopped the ball again, and he took a deep breath before kicking it towards Taichi, this time with more strength than before.

 

The ball stopped right on Taichi’s feet. Sora clasped her hands together in delight and Taichi beamed at him, arms on his hips.

 

“Good job! I knew you could do it!” Sora greatly encouraged him, and she looked so genuinely happy that Koushiro couldn’t help but feeling so, as well.

 

“You’re a fast learner, huh.” Taichi simply said, but his grin was so wide that staring at it made Koushiro’s own cheeks hurt.

 

They kept passing the ball for a while, mindlessly chatting about things, until the coach told them that they were about to leave and get back to their school.

 

Sora excused herself, saying that she needed to go to the toilet before getting up on the bus, so their departure got slightly delayed.

 

Taichi and Koushiro went to return the ball to the coach, and they stood silent, waiting for Sora’s return, until Taichi piped up.

 

“You did a great job, you know! I really think you could play soccer well.”

 

Koushiro averted his gaze to the ground. “I am still very far behind in terms of physical skills, and I wouldn’t say that managing to throw a pass properly accounts for ‘great’... It is merely a basic requirement for soccer.”

 

Taichi shook his head lightly, lips curving upwards with ruefulness. “You really need to stop putting yourself down.”

 

Koushiro blinked at the sudden pressure that he felt on his head, slowly looking up. Taichi’s hand was gently ruffling his hair, running delicate fingers through auburn locks. The touch was surprisingly soft and soothing. It somehow felt so unlike Taichi, always passionate and relentless.

 

Koushiro quickly locked his eyes onto the ground, cursing his inability to conceal his blushes around Taichi. The older boy looked at him curiously and he seemed about to say something.

 

But, as if she was a guardian angel, Sora suddenly appeared on the other side of the field, waving at them, and Taichi directed his attention to her, even though his hand was still resting on top of Koushiro.

 

“I’m ready! We can leave now.” 

 

“Quick, let’s go, I want to get the seats on the back so we can all sit together.” Taichi said, following his teammates who were walking towards the bus.

 

They got inside the vehicle, but a boy, whom Koushiro identified at Kenta, stopped Taichi from walking any further.

 

“Taichi, we’re going to sit at the end.” Kenta said, with his two friends nodding in agreement.

 

Taichi stared at him for a solid two seconds before slowly turning his head. One half of the back seats were already occupied by three of his teammates, so that only left another three seats free.

 

They all simply stood in silence for a moment, and right as Kenta was about to walk past them, Taichi broke into a run and started to sprint all the way to the back of the bus, dragging Sora and Koushiro right behind him, despite Kenta’s loud protests. After all, only the backseats had space for more than two people to sit together, so he’d been dead set on snatching them. 

 

Sora, with a quick, swift motion, managed to run past Taichi, squishing herself next to the window on the right side. Taichi practically threw Koushiro next to her before taking the last seat available himself. He stuck his tongue out at Kenta’s gang.

 

Kenta scowled, giving the trio a defeated glare and plopping himself in the nearest spot.

 

“Well, that’s that.” Taichi shrugged nonchalantly, lazily throwing an arm around Koushiro’s shoulders.

 

“I’m glad we got the seats, at least.” Sora mused, dreamily gazing at the ginger tints of the sunset sky.

 

Koushiro merely nodded along, feeling all too conscious of how close the three of them were. A simple side hug from Taichi and Sora’s knee brushing with his shouldn’t make him feel as if his heart was about to burst out from his chest, but it did.

 

As the bus’s engine started up, the young boy silently pondered just how bad his touch starvation even was.

 

It’d be frankly ridiculous to try to deny that he was in need of physical contact, but it still left Koushiro with a tight lump in his throat. The mere thought of being affectionate with his parents made him feel ridiculously conflicted with himself.

 

On one hand, wasn’t that what he exactly wanted?

 

But on the other… His parents still hadn’t told him the truth. He’d only learned it by mistake. Did that mean that they didn’t trust him? Why would they keep such information from him?

 

No, trying to regain close contact with his parents was out of the question. At least for now, with all the self-doubts clouding his mind…

 

The trip back to the school was very quiet, especially when compared to the loudness of the match. People were only quietly chatting with each other, and even the rumbling of the bus was dull and barely noticeable to Koushiro’s ears. 

 

The light swaying of the bus made him feel truly relaxed, and Koushiro had to fight to keep his eyelids open. Taichi and Sora seemed to be talking to each other, but he couldn’t make out the words, only muffled syllabes.

 

He finally found himself drifting off into a gente slumber. His head ended up resting daintily against Taichi’s shoulder without Koushiro even realising it.

 

“Aww. He fell asleep on you.” Sora whispered, observing Koushiro’s chest slowly rise and fall. 

 

“...Yeah.” Taichi said after a few seconds of silence, voice unbelievably soft. “He did.”

 

Taichi pulled Koushiro just a bit closer, making himself as comfortable as possible in the limited space. He didn't seem to mind the bits of Koushiro’s hair that we're tickling his collarbone in the slightest.

 

Sora smiled fondly at the pair before shifting her gaze towards the window, admiring the beautiful sky once more. She still kept an eye on her friends, if only to check whether Taichi was still awake or not.

 

If Sora had looked a bit more closely, she would have noticed the faint red that colored Taichi’s face.

 

“Your hair is really soft, even though it doesn’t look like it…” Taichi muttered, so low that the girl didn’t catch it.

 

And, if Sora hadn’t fallen asleep soon afterwards, she would have seen the gentle kiss that Taichi planted on the top of Koushiro’s head.


	3. 03 - circumlocution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mm? What’s up?” Taichi lazily murmured, as if there was nothing remotely abnormal about this situation. At all. Because, clearly, using your friend’s lap as a pillow was an everyday occurance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I ended up managing to finish this chapter much sooner than expected :D Please do not press me for such regular updates, though - I don't have a proper updating schedule per se, and it's pretty rare for me to able to write a long chapter in such little time. 
> 
> I'm really hoping these chapters don't feel too peaceful and slow paced (it is called _slow_ burn for a reason, I know, but still), I'm just trying to build their dynamic without rush. With that being said, next update might have some drama... -laughs-
> 
> Well, I don't have anything else to say. As always, kudos/comments are super appreciated. Enjoy the chapter!

Being bored during the weekend was possibly one of the worst feelings ever, Taichi decided.

 

He pressed the button on the TV remote over and over, apathetically switching from one channel to another after a few seconds, because none of the shows managed to retain his attention.

 

The temptation to just head back to bed and sleep through the rest of the day was very alluring, as he was still pretty beat up from yesterday’s match, but he wanted to do something fun and exciting. Burying his face in a pillow for another eight hours didn’t exactly sound entertaining in his book.

 

He stood up from the living room’s couch, strolling to his room and walking inside without knocking.

 

He was met with the sight of a thousand of cloth dolls scattered across the floor, and a bubbly Hikari, still dressed in pajamas, making two of the dolls have a conversation with each other.

 

Taichi quietly closed the door, pretending that he hadn’t seen his room invaded by an army of child toys. How many of those dolls did Hikari have, even? Where did she keep all of them?

 

The boy determined that he was better off not knowing. Hikari could be truly mysterious at times, and he just needed to accept that his sister had somehow kept hidden a whole collection of dolls without him noticing.

 

So his plan of playing video games on the Sega Saturn with Hikari had been foiled. Fine, he could still play by himself, no big deal.

 

He retraced his steps, approaching the TV cabinet and rummaging through the drawers until he found what he’d been looking for.

 

His Game Boy was covered by a faint layer of dust, which Taichi wiped away with his shirt. He sat on the couch and turned it on, not really caring to check what game cartridge was inserted in the console.

 

“Oh, it’s Street Fighter II.”

 

It’d been a while since he played that one. The gameplay was a bit hard and slow for him, but he still liked it well enough.

 

He played a couple of battles before he got tired of it. To his dismay, the minute hand of the clock had barely moved from its previous position.

 

Taichi groaned, once again not knowing what to do with himself.

 

His mother happened to walk by, and when she saw him lying on the couch as if he was having an existential crisis, she merely shook her head in a disappointed manner.

 

“Why don’t you see if you can meet up with some of your friends?” she suggested.

 

“I’m tired. It’s not like I don’t want to, but—”

 

“You could always stay at someone’s _house_.” she cut him down.

 

“And do what?” Taichi retorted. “It’s not like Sora has anything to…” he suddenly trailed off, his face lighting up. “Wait! Koushiro likes all that stuff! Maybe he has some console! Can I call him, _kaasan_?”

 

“Of course.” Yuuko Yagami chuckled lightly to herself, observing how her son practically tripped over his own feet while trying to reach the landline phone.

 

Taichi flipped through the pages of the small bullet journal they kept next to the phone. Koushiro’s number was the last one written down, with Taichi’s sloppy and barely intelligible handwriting.

 

Taichi dialed the number and immediately held the phone to his ear, hoping that his friend would be able to save him from his boredom.

 

After the second ring, a cordial, almost tense feminine voice greeted him.

 

“Hello? Who is this?”

 

Taichi could feel his mind scrambling to remember polite japanese speech, which he, frankly, rarely used. “Hello, good morning, I’m Taichi Yagami, uh…”

 

“Oh!” the voice exclaimed with joy. “You’re the friend that Koushiro mentioned. What do I owe this call to?” she asked, way more relaxed than before.

 

Deciding to ignore how self-conscious her statement made him feel (what kind of things had Koushiro told his parents about him?), Taichi coughed awkwardly before proceeding. “Can he get on the phone?”

 

“Of course, please hold on a second, I’ll let him know you called.”

 

“Thank you.” Taichi let out, and there was a slight sound in the other end of the line before it went completely silent.

 

The boy fiddled with the cable of the phone while waiting, tapping with his feet on the floor impatiently.

 

“Hello, Taichi-san.” Koushiro’s voice greeted him, after what felt like an eternity.

 

“Hey, Koushiro! Are you free to hang out? I mean like, at your house. To play video games or something.” Taichi asked, straight to the point, as usual.

 

“...Oh, I suppose you could… come over. I’d need to ask my parents first, though.” Koushiro answered after a few seconds.

 

“Sure.”

 

Taichi could almost still hear Koushiro talking, but his voice was too faint to figure the words out.

 

“They said you can come over whenever you wish to.” Koushiro announced.

 

“Cool! I’ll drop by in a bit then.” Taichi said, already about to hang up the call, but Koushiro didn’t stop talking.

 

“I own a Nintendo 64, if you’d like to play with—”

 

“What? That’s awesome!” Taichi cut him mid sentence, bubbling with excitement. “I wanted to get it, but my dad…” the boy shook his head with sadness, even though Koushiro wouldn’t be able to see the gesture. “I’ve never tried it out, so you’ll have to teach me. I’m a quick learner, though, don’t worry!”

 

“I’m already looking forward to it.” Koushiro laughed a bit. “Is Sora-san coming as well?”

 

Taichi paused. “I haven’t called her… I can ask and see if she wants to come too.”

 

“Alright. I’ll be waiting for your arrival.” Koushiro said.

 

“Yeah, see you soon!” Taichi bid him farewell, setting the phone down.

 

He dialed Sora’s number. The only response that he received was the prerecorded message from the voicemail, though. He put the phone back in place, slightly disappointed, but he wouldn’t let this ruin his incredibly good mood.

 

“So it’ll be just Koushiro and me.”

 

He ran to the kitchen, where his mom seemed to be struggling with some cooking recipe.

 

“I’m going to Koushiro’s!” he yelled to catch her attention.

 

“Alright, have fun! Come back before it gets too late.” Yuuko told him, waving cheerily.

 

“Will do!” Taichi assured her.

 

He sprinted to the entrance, picking a pair of trainers and quickly putting them on.

 

“I’ll be going now, bye!” he said before opening the door and stepping outside.

 

The sun was shining brightly, with nearly no clouds covering the sky. It’d be a shame to spend the day stuck inside four walls, but his muscles were still sore from yesterday, so it really was a no-go.

 

“Playing video games is still cool, anyway. What kind of games does Koushiro like, though?” Taichi wondered, walking calmly for what could possibly be the first time in his life, simply enjoying the nice weather without any rush.

 

He seemed like the kind of guy who would enjoy… tactical games…

 

Taichi gulped, remembering how his strategy in all the games he’d ever played was to hit the enemy as hard as he could and hope that they’d end up dying first.  

 

Ah, whatever. If it came down to it, Taichi would just wing it. Or maybe even actually use his brain for once.

 

After a few minutes he reached Koushiro’s apartment block. Thankfully, he still remembered the door plate number. Which was kind of surprising, really, because he utterly sucked at remembering numbers. Most of the time he couldn’t even recall his landline phone’s one.

 

He rang the bell, and he was astonished at how, merely a couple of seconds later, the door got opened for him. That was ridiculously quick.

 

A woman, who Taichi assumed to be Koushiro’s mother, was looking kindly at him.

 

“Taichi-kun, right? Come in, come in.” she giddily urged him inside.

 

“Thank you for having me, it’s nice to meet you.” Taichi nodded, stepping in. While he was taking his shoes off, Koushiro appeared at the end of the hallway.

 

“Hi, Taichi-san.” Koushiro gave him a small smile. “I see Sora-san isn’t with you.”

 

“Nah, she didn’t pick up the phone so I guessed she’s busy. It’s just you and me today.” Taichi explained.

 

“Well, I hope you two have fun!” Koushiro’s mother said, lightly ruffling her son’s hair.

 

“Let’s go, Taichi-san. My room is at the end.” Koushiro muttered, quickly stepping away from his mother’s touch.

 

“Okay. Thank you again.” Taichi nodded at the woman once more before following the other boy.

Just as Taichi had expected, Koushiro’s room was ridiculously tidy. The bed sheets were folded neatly, his work desk was absolutely impeccable, and there weren’t any clothes or random items spread across the carpeted floor.

 

Taichi made a note to never let Koushiro see his shared bedroom with Hikari. Now _that_ was a mess, especially compared to this spotless place.

 

“Sorry for making you wait.” Koushiro’s apologetic tone shook Taichi out of his thoughts. “I believe I stored my spare controller somewhere around here…”

 

“Don’t sweat it, it’s fine. I can help you look for it.”

 

“It won’t be necessary, I think I remember where I placed it...” Koushiro opened the closet, searching thoroughly, moving several packages out of the way. “There it is!” he exclaimed proudly, after spotting a grey box.

 

He carefully opened it, taking out the controller and handing it to a rather perplexed Taichi.

 

“It has… three handles?” Taichi asked, trying to figure out how to hold it properly.

 

“Yes. Is this the first time you see it?” Koushiro asked curiously.

 

“I’ve probably seen it in some ad and I simply don’t remember.” Taichi laughed, a bit embarrassed. “But seriously, how do you use this thing?”

 

“I’ll teach you. Let’s go to the living room, I have the console set up there.”

 

“Ah, yeah. What kind of games do you have?” Taichi questioned, sitting down on the couch while he observed Koushiro connecting the additional controller to the console.

 

“I have some puzzle games, as well as tactical ones… but I figured you wouldn’t exactly enjoy those ones, right?”

 

“It’s not really my thing, yeah…” Taichi agreed, rubbing his neck sheepishly.

 

“Do you like fighting games? Like Pokemon Stadium, or Super Smash Bros, for example—”

 

“Oh, I know that one!” Taichi yelled. “I’ve heard Samus is a character in there, too. Like, the girl from Metroid, with the cool suit.”

 

“Yes, she is indeed. So Smash it is?” Koushiro asked for confirmation.

 

“Smash.” Taichi agreed, barely able to contain his enthusiasm.

 

Koushiro smiled, putting the cartridge of the game and starting up the console. He sat down on the floor, close to the screen, and Taichi kneeled down next to him.

“Look, Taichi-san. This is how you’re supposed to hold it.” Koushiro pointed out, grabbing the middle handle with his left hand, and the right one with his right hand.

 

“Ohhh. But then the pad with the arrows is hard to reach…” Taichi pouted.

 

“You don’t really use it in this game, so it’ll be fine.”

 

“Okay then.”

 

They watched the introduction scene to the videogame, and after a few seconds where Koushiro didn’t press the start button like the game asked him to, a screen with two characters popped up.

 

“See, this is the tutorial to learn how to play. Try to follow it as best as you can.” Koushiro instructed Taichi.

 

The boy hadn’t been lying when he said he was a quick learner, because he got used to all of the controls quickly enough, except for the one where he had to grab the other character.

 

“I don’t get it, how am I supposed to press three buttons at the same time? That’s just impossible!”

 

“...Taichi-san, you read that wrong. You can use either the Z button plus the A button, or just the R one. It’s not necessary to use the three of them.”

 

“Uh…” Taichi stared down at his controller with a troubled frown. “What was the Z button again?”

 

Koushiro sighed before letting out a small chuckle. He left his own controller on the floor and sat a bit closer to Taichi.

 

“What are you—”

 

He gently took Taichi’s hands in his, moving his fingers to the correct buttons.

 

“This one is the Z.” Koushiro said, pressing Taichi’s finger softly against the button. “And the blue one is the A.” he repeated the motion once more. “So if you tap both of them simultaneously…”

 

Taichi pressed them in sync, and his character successfully grabbed onto Koushiro’s one.

 

“There, that’s how you do it.” Koushiro congratulated his friend.

 

“Yeah, uh, thanks! I just forgot which one was the Z…”

 

Both boys directed their attention away from the screen to talk to each other, and only then they realized how close they were.

 

Their shoulders were touching, and the tips of their nose were mere centimeters away from brushing with the other’s. If… If one of them leaned forward, then—

 

Koushiro was the first one to snap out of his trance. He pulled away rather hastily, and Taichi pretended not to notice the deep pink flush covering his cheeks.

 

He could only hope his own blush wasn’t too palpable. _What the hell had just happened??_ Why were they both blushing and staring at each other like idiots?

 

...Taichi didn’t like to overthink stuff. And he didn’t like pondering over past events, either. What was done was done, and he always tried his best to live the present to its fullest.

 

But it wasn’t like he could just ignore that his half asleep brain had decided to kiss Koushiro on the ride back to school yesterday. He couldn’t pretend it never happened.

 

Well, strictly speaking, he _could_ , because he was fairly sure that nobody had seen him.

 

It wouldn’t feel right, though, would it? Because—

 

Koushiro coughed awkwardly to catch his attention, cutting his line of thought. “Taichi-san?”

 

“Huh?” was the only thing that the distracted Taichi could manage. He blinked twice, forcing himself to focus on the real world. “Oh, right…” he simply said, staring at the screen with a dumbfounded look. “We were… Playing.”

 

“...Yes. We still are. I’m merely waiting for you to pick a character.” Koushiro pointed out, talking very slowly.

 

It took Taichi a moment to realize that Koushiro was right. The player one cursor was already settled down on Pikachu’s character icon, while Taichi’s was just floating aimlessly.

 

“Uh— Sorry, kinda spaced out.” he quickly apologized, moving his cursor towards Samus’s icon. “Let’s go!”

 

Koushiro selected an easy stage for them to brawl on, and then their battle began.

 

At the beginning, Koushiro had the clear upper hand - his fingers moved from one place to the other, chaining combos without hesitation, and Taichi found himself getting knocked out from the field a ridiculous amount of times.

 

But thanks to his stubbornness, battle after battle, Taichi had started to grow more confident. His style was still rather clumsy, just throwing random attacks here and there by hitting the controller’s stick without any strategy whatsoever, and his shield and dodge button remained untouched, but Koushiro had to try a bit harder to keep his advantage.

 

After nearly two hours of senselessly smashing buttons, they decided that it was time to take a break. Mainly because Taichi pressed the buttons so hard that he almost couldn't feel his thumb anymore.

 

“Man, that was fun!” Taichi yelled. “You’re so good at it, too.”

 

“It merely takes some practice. Everyone can be a nice player if they try hard enough, I’d say.” Koushiro mused.

 

“But playing this game alone’s gotta be kinda boring, right?”

 

“I suppose so. I… used to play with my parents quite often…”

 

“Used to?” Taichi repeated. “So not anymore? How come?”

 

Koushiro’s shoulders tensed up almost imperceptibly, but he kept his relaxed face, not giving away how sad he was feeling. “I imagine it’s easier for adults to grow bored of games, so we stopped playing together somewhere along the line.”

 

“That makes sense.” Taichi replied after a bit, and Koushiro was glad that he’d bought his made up explanation. “Well, you’ve got me now!” he said, grinning brightly.

 

“Yeah.” Koushiro nodded, giggling fondly. “That’s true.”

 

Taichi’s expression suddenly shifted, features growing serious, with his lips pressed together in a thin line.

 

“I mean it. If…” he faltered for a bit, as if he wasn’t sure of what to say. “ _That girl_ hasn’t bothered you again, right?”

 

Koushiro blinked, surprised at the abrupt, off topic question. However, if only to reassure Taichi, he shook his head. “No, she hasn’t.”

 

Because Eriko really hadn’t. A few snarky remarks and mean comments wasn’t something worth mentioning.

 

“That’s good.” Taichi sighed with relief. “t’s... not cool to bottle things up, you know?”

 

“Of course.” Koushiro nodded hesitantly, trying to understand why Taichi was bringing this up out of the blue. “Likewise… If you happened to have any kind of problem, I may not be the best candidate to ask for help, but… A lot of people have said I’m a good listener.”

 

“Yeah. We can count on each other, okay? I just kinda wanted to make sure you knew that, I guess.”

 

“Thank you.” Koushiro said, even though he knew it already.

 

After all, Taichi had already stood up for him more than once. Taichi had befriended him because he wanted to, and…

 

Maybe, staying by Taichi’s side made him feel that warmth in his heart that he still wasn’t sure of how to name. Maybe it also reminded Koushiro of how painfully alone he’d been for such a long time. Or of how pitiful his social skills were.

 

But Koushiro was okay with all of that. His negative feelings and the small, unwanted pangs of remordiment in his chest were nothing compared to the all the good things.

 

After all, Koushiro thought that he’d lost it forever after he discovered the truth about his past, but Taichi had managed to bring it back to him.

 

A place to belong.

 

...He was really glad that he caught a cold all those days ago.

 

“Honestly, though.” Taichi piped up. “The biggest problem that I could ask you to help me with is math homework.”

 

“A small one, but a problem nevertheless.” Koushiro snickered. “I could assist you with studies, if you wish so.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind. At least I don’t have any homework this weekend!”

 

“...Are you sure of that?”

 

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I be?” Taichi retorted.

 

“When we were on the bus yesterday, I heard Sora-san complaining about some exercises of her maths worksheet…” Koushiro explained, with an almost cautious tone.

 

Taichi smiled nervously, skin immediately looking thirty shades paler, and Koushiro could swear that a curtain of sweat had covered his whole forehead.

 

“...We had a math worksheet?” he asked, denial and horror dripping from each syllable

 

“Yes, Taichi-san. I’m confident Sora-san said so. It also sounded like quite a long one, at that…”

 

“Stop making it worse.” Taichi complained, groaning loudly. He let out a defeated sigh before laying down on the ground, as if a big lorry had just ran over him. “It’s all over, I’m done for.”

 

“It cannot be that bad.” Koushiro deadpanned.

 

Taichi shot him a glare. “It can and will. Man, and I was having such a good time too…”

 

“...It won’t be that bad if I help you with it, right?”

 

“Would you? Do you have the strength to sit through one of those hellish worksheets? Are you sure?” Taichi asked him, dead serious.

 

“With all due respect, Taichi-san, I feel as if you may be exaggerating the magnitude of your homework’s difficulty…” Koushiro muttered.

 

“Fine. Even you will have some trouble with it. Hiraoka-sensei’s long worksheets are just the worst. They slowly eat your sanity away…”

 

“Taichi-san, stop talking as if an inanimate piece of paper has the ability to destroy you.”

 

“But it’s for real!” Taichi insisted. “If you stare at those numbers for long enough, you end up forgetting how to read…”

 

Koushiro sighed, clearly finding this whole discussion a lost cause. Sometimes, there simply was no way to argue and get the right idea through Taichi’s thick skull.

 

The house’s phone started ringing right as Taichi finished his sentence.

 

“I’ll go get it.” Koushiro said, getting up from the floor and rushing to pick up the device.

 

“Hello, who is…”

 

“Hi, Koushiro-kun!” Sora’s bubbly voice greeted him.

 

“Ah, hello, Sora-san.” Koushiro’s words got Taichi to raise his head from the ground with mild interest.

 

“I tried calling at Taichi’s, but her mom said he was already out at yours, so I decided to call here. Are you two still together?”

 

“Yes, we are. In fact, we were just taking a break from playing video games and discussing your math homework.”

 

“Ugh.” Sora immediately grunted. “Don’t talk to me about that. I still haven’t got around to do it. And here I thought I understood everything in our last class, too…”

 

“I suggested that I could help Taichi-san with his, so I’d be happy to assist you with your worksheet, as well.”

 

“Ah, really? That’s so kind of you, Koushiro-kun! I bet we both seriously need the help…”

 

“How about we all meet up at the library tomorrow?” Koushiro suggested, turning to look at Taichi to see if he was alright with the idea.

 

“Sure.” Taichi agreed easily enough. “We could get that done in the morning, and then hang out for the rest of the day.”

 

Koushiro communicated Taichi’s idea to Sora.

 

“That’s fine by me. Could we meet up at eleven?” Sora asked.

 

“She said if we could meet up at eleven.” Koushiro told Taichi.

 

“Yeah, works fine.” Taichi nodded.

 

“Alright.” Koushiro turned his attention back to the phone. “Yes, eleven is fine for all of us.”

 

“Awesome! I wanted to come over today, but my mom, uh... needs me to do some chores, so...” she trailed off.

 

“I see. That’s a shame. In that case, see you tomorrow, Sora-san.”

 

“Yeah. Bye-bye!” were Sora’s last words before she hanged up.

 

Koushiro set down the phone and gave Taichi a disapproving look when he saw that he was motionless, still laying on the floor like he’d been doing for the past five minutes. The younger boy sat down next to him, hoping that his judgemental stare would be enough to get him to sit up properly.

 

“Are you going to mope around for the rest of the evening?”

 

“Ah, sorry. I’m a bit tired from yesterday’s match, and it’s surprisingly comfortable down here.” Taichi said, patting the wooden floor tiles, as if to prove his point.

 

“Taichi-san, are you suggesting that you were about to take a nap on the floor?” Koushiro inquired with a faint hint of disbelief.

 

The worst part was that Koushiro could perfectly believe that his friend had been about to fall asleep right there. Taichi definitely would.

 

“Where else am I supposed to take a nap? The couch is too far away.” Taichi whined.

 

“...It’s barely a few meters away from where you are.” Koushiro pointed out.

 

“Too far away.” Taichi reiterated.

 

“I— Okay, then. I give up. I’m not going to stop you, Taichi-san. Suit yourself.” Koushiro resigned himself to fate. “At least let me get you a pillow.”

 

“A pillow? I don’t need it.” Taichi answered.

 

“Unless you wish to get a headache, I’d advise—”

 

“No, I mean…” Taichi cut him, slowly sitting up, looking at Koushiro through half closed eyes. “I already have a pillow right here.” he said, pointing at the boy.

 

Before Koushiro could say anything else, Taichi scooted a bit closer, plopping his head down on Koushiro’s lap and loosely wrapping his arms around his waist.

 

“T-Taichi-san?” Koushiro stammered, face growing red and nearly matching the shade of his auburn hair.

 

“Mm? What’s up?” Taichi lazily murmured, as if there was nothing remotely abnormal about this situation. At all. Because, clearly, using your friend’s lap as a pillow was an everyday occurance.

 

Koushiro cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to make sure that his voice wouldn’t sound several octaves higher upon speaking. “I do not believe that...” he blushed a bit more, if that was even possible. “...using me as a pillow is… the right way to go about this.”

 

“But you’re comfy.” Taichi merely said. He even snuggled up to Koushiro as if he was some kind of goddamn cat, to Koushiro’s utter embarrassment. “Why not? It’s not like I’m doing anything bad.”

 

“That’s not the issue here...”

 

“Yeah, because there isn’t any issue.” Taichi sighed, voice tinged with a bit of annoyance. “You’re the one making things all weird…”

 

“What?” Koushiro breathed out in genuine confusion.

 

“Whatever!” Taichi finally snapped, hiding his face in Koushiro’s shirt. “Just let me rest.”

 

Taichi could practically feel Koushiro’s puzzled stare directed at him, which only made the crimson in his cheeks grow more intense. What in the fresh hell was he even doing? First his brain decided to plant a kiss on Koushiro’s head out of nowhere, and now he’d somehow ended up cuddling him without even meaning to??

 

“I… Well, if you’re so determined, then...” Koushiro timidly spoke up. Pointedly trying to act as if the massive ball of hair resting on his lap wasn’t bothering him in the slightest, he reached out and grabbed the controller, holding it awkwardly in the air so that it wouldn’t hit Taichi’s head.

 

No?? No, Taichi wasn’t determined, not one single bit. But, at this point, wouldn’t pulling away be equally awkward as staying in this position? And Koushiro had started a new battle against the CPU, too, if the sounds coming from the TV were anything to go by.

 

He’d just have to live like this for a bit. Yeah.

 

And, despite the awkwardness of it,Taichi would be lying if he said that he disliked being close to Koushiro like this. Then again, Taichi had always been like this, shoving all of his friends with affection, be it a friendly arm thrown around their shoulders or a simple pat in the back.

 

A kiss wasn’t all that different, was it? Sure, you didn’t normally go around kissing people, but still. That didn’t mean that Taichi had to interpret it any differently. Just another possible friendly display of affection.

 

_...Right?_


	4. 04 - caecus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _caecus: blind, sightless._  
>  Maybe it was simply her family instinct, but Hikari couldn’t help but notice that Taichi obviously really appreciated his close friendship with Koushiro. 
> 
> Maybe even more than Taichi himself would be willing to admit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *waves* I'M BACK! With quite a lengthy update this time... Actually the longest chapter up to date, I believe! Even if it only beats the first one by a small number of words. This chapter may be a bit messy, because frankly I was suffering from the worst kind of writer's block — wanting to write something, _knowing_ what you want to write, but just... not doing it.
> 
> So I actually typed roughly one half in Spanish, translated it, and one half in English. :') (english is hard, man)
> 
> But I hope you enjoy it, and I'm sorry for the rather long wait. Drama time... *chuckles*

Hikari knew that something was wrong the moment she saw Taichi walk out from their room. Normally, the boy didn’t enjoy having to wake up early in the slightest, but he looked too annoyed for that to be the only reason behind his pissed off expression.

 

If the pout on his lips and his furrowed brows were anything to go by, of course.

 

“Good morning, oniichan.” Hikari mumbled cautiously, a bit surprised that her brother had woken up all by himself, without needing her to untangle him from the bedsheets. She opted to remain silent and not point out Taichi’s angry face, since it’d probably be better to let him talk, if there was something bothering him.

 

“Ah, morning, Hikari.” Taichi casually greeted her, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He looked around the room, arching an eyebrow when he noticed that their parents weren’t anywhere to be seen. “Where’s mom? How come you’re alone?”

 

Hikari merely moved her finger, pointing to the fridge, where a pink sticker note was held by a magnet. Taichi strode twice, getting close enough to be able to read it.

 

The girl smiled sympathetically when she heard Taichi sigh with resignation.

 

“So they’re gone for the day, and I’m supposed to be taking care of you. This could be a bit of a problem…”

 

“Sorry.” Hikari apologized immediately, despite the fact that she had done nothing wrong. “Did you have something planned?”

 

“Uh, yeah.” Taichi admitted, scratching his head. “I had decided to meet up with Sora and Koushiro at the library to do some school homework…” he slowly trailed off, face lighting up. He turned around to face Hikari with a wide grin. “I know! Why don’t you come too?”

 

“Would that be okay?” asked Hikari, not wanting to be a bother.

 

“Of course!” Taichi reassured her. “We’re only gonna be doing some boring worksheet, that’s all. I know you’ll be quiet, so it’s cool if you tag along. And if we get done soon we could go for a walk. It’s also been a while since we last went to have lunch on a restaurant, right?”

 

“That’s true. It’d be pretty nice.” Hikari accepted her brother’s suggestion, nodding happily. “But do you even have money for that?”

 

Taichi’s eye twitched a bit, and Hikari couldn’t stop herself from chuckling, because clearly the thought hadn’t even crossed Taichi’s mind. “How did you plan on having lunch without anything to pay for it?”

 

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead.” Taichi admitted. “But it doesn’t matter. I bet Sora will bring something.”

 

“Probably.” Hikari agreed. “After all, Sora-san tends to be more thoughtful than you, oniichan.” she teased him.

 

“Hey! What was that for? I’m also very thoughtful, you know!” Taichi protested, full of indignation.

 

“I’m not saying you’re not. But sometimes you lack a bit of… tact for some things.” Hikari tried to reason with him.

 

“Tact?” Taichi repeated, with sudden interest.

 

“Well, yeah. I’d say for some people you could get.. overwhelming, when you get too excited. Not everyone can deal with that like Sora or me can. You know what I mean?” she decided to venture herself. 

 

“No, I don’t. I don’t know what the hell are you talking about.” Taichi curtly replied, but Hikari could feel the hesitation in his voice, and she knew that her suspicions were right.

 

Because she had already come to a conclusion. Or, well, more like it’d actually be really hard to not deduce what had happened. Hikari had heard from their mother that yesterday, Taichi had gone to spend the day over at Koushiro’s to play video games, and now, as it was the morning of the next day, it wasn’t hard to tell that something had happened while he’d been playing at Koushiro’s house.

 

Maybe anyone else wouldn’t have noticed, but Hikari had only seen her brother truly bothered or worried about something on scarce occasions. Maybe it was simply her family instinct, but Hikari couldn’t help but notice that Taichi obviously really appreciated his close friendship with Koushiro.

 

Maybe even more than Taichi himself would be willing to admit. 

 

...Or maybe Hikari was overthinking it too much, trying to step in and help with something that Taichi hadn’t asked help for. Yes, it was surely that. She didn’t even actually know Koushiro, aside from what Taichi had told her about him, and she hadn’t seen how her brother behaved around him, either. It was too early to judge the weight of the situation.

 

Well, she’d find out all of that today.

 

“Hikari! Are you listening to me?” Taichi yelled, making Hikari turn her attention to him.

 

She shook her head. “Oniichan, when are we leaving?” she asked out of nowhere.

 

“...Huh?” was Taichi’s brilliant response, as he hadn’t been expecting the sudden question. “Uh… Uh, at eleven we need to be at the library already… Wait, don’t switch the topic like that!”

 

“I’ll go get dressed. You should have something for breakfast.” Hikari merely said before sprinting towards the bedroom.

 

She decided that right now wasn’t a good moment to argue anything with Taichi, not when she didn’t really know much about Koushiro. She’d have to wait a bit, but she was determined to solve this.

 

“What’s with her?” Taichi complained to nobody in particular, crossing his arms and staring at nowhere, almost like he was actually waiting for an answer. When it became obvious that the air wasn’t going to grow a mouth and reply to him, he sighed disappointedly.

 

Taichi shrugged, searching through the drawers and cabinets of the kitchen without finding anything that he felt like eating, until, by mere chance, he managed to find a pack of chocolate croissants hidden behind a box of cookies. Scanning the room with a quick look, as if to make sure that his mother wouldn’t pop up out of nowhere and scream at him for being gluttonous, he opened the pack and started to eat one of the croissants.

 

He leaned back on the marble bar, a bit angry because he was still thinking about the stupid conversation that he just had with Hikari. He took a bite bigger than his last one, chewing loudly, like he wanted the sound to drown out his thoughts. 

 

Against his will, his mind ended up trailing back to yesterday, to the also stupid and awkward moments that he’d shared with Koushiro. What had he even been thinking? Koushiro was… Well, Koushiro! And evidently Koushiro wasn’t used to such close physical contact, but Taichi, dumb Taichi, had somehow considered that it wouldn’t be a problem if it was just the two of them, with nobody else around.

 

And even if he acknowledged that, it still didn’t answer the question that Taichi had desperately tried to avoid.

 

What had brought him to do that in the first place, really? 

 

He wasn’t as sleepy as he’d claimed to be. There was literally no need for Taichi to go and create that uncomfortable situation, and yet he’d decided that it’d be nice to do so.

 

Well. The situation had only been uncomfortable for Koushiro, really. Taichi had enjoyed laying down with his head buried on Koushiro’s lap more than he’d ever like to admit.

 

Wait, wait. Backtrack. Why was he describing the situation as uncomfortable to begin with? After all it wasn’t like Koushiro had shoved him away. He’d simply kept on playing his video games while Taichi snored against his chest. So he couldn’t be as uneasy as Taichi thought he felt, right?

 

Ugh. This was why he hated overthinking pointless stuff, because he never managed to get close to drawing any conclusion out of it. It was just endlessly walking in circles.

 

Stupid Koushiro, making things all weird and confusing, geez.

 

Taichi started to mindlessly munch on another croissant. Hikari stepped out from the room just as he was finishing it, wearing one of her cute childish summer dresses. It was still spring, granted, but that didn’t make the hot weather any more bearable.

 

“I’m all set, oniichan. Are you done with your breakfast?”

 

“Yeah.” Taichi nodded, gobbling down the last piece of the pastry. “Wait a bit, I’m gonna get ready and pick up my backpack, then we can leave. Could you write a note for mom? Just in case they come back before us. I’d do it myself, but you know my writing is kinda…”

 

“Messy, I know.” Hikari said, laughing softly. “What should I put down?”

 

“Say that we left to spend the day with Sora and Koushiro. And that we’re studying a bit. And that they don’t need to worry, we’ll be back soon, all that jazz.” Taichi vaguely replied, already headed towards the room.

 

Hikari opened one of the kitchen drawers, grabbing a small paper and a pen that were stored there. She stared up at the ceiling for a few moments, trying to think of the exact words that she should write, and then she confidently slid the pen across the paper, making sure to sign the brief text at the end with her trademark signature.

 

She noticed Taichi had forgot to put the pack of croissants back in place, so she saved it for him instead, tiptoeing slightly to reach the cabinet.

 

Taichi had always possessed the virtue of being able to get himself ready in a miraculously short time. Or perhaps it wasn’t a virtue, more like an habit grown out of necessity, since he did have a tendency to wake up late during school mornings more often than not.

 

One way or another, a bare five minutes after he’d left, he was already back, hair now fixed up and presentable, heavy looking backpack hanging on his shoulders. 

 

“You got it written?” he asked for confirmation.

 

Hikari nodded with a delighted beam. “We’re all ready now.”

 

Taichi smiled back at her, but his grin wasn’t as big and honest as usual. “Sure, let’s go then.”

 

***

 

The route to get to the library was rather short, but the siblings had decided to start their trip early anyway, because the traffic lights usually didn’t like to cooperate with them, and they ended up having to wait for an eternity to be able to cross to the other side.

 

For that very reason, they barely made it on time, arriving at the building’s door exactly two minutes before the accorded hour. To Taichi’s surprise, Sora and Koushiro weren’t already waiting for him like he’d expected.

 

“It’s weird those two aren’t here yet.” Taichi muttered with a small pout. The one time he had actually put effort to get on time somewhere, turns out his friends were the ones running late.

 

“Aw, don’t worry, oniichan.”  Hikari reassured him, patting his back gently. “I’m sure they’ll get here soon.”

 

After a couple of minutes, that felt like a terribly long and agonizing eternity for Taichi, they finally decided to show up, and Taichi could only blink in disbelief.

 

Sora and Koushiro were walking. Together. Blushing. Panting a bit, smiling like two dreamy idiots.

 

Taichi felt an unwanted pang in his chest.

 

_ What. The. Hell. _

 

“Sora-san! Koushiro-san!” Hikari happily waved at them, blissfully unaware of her brother’s inner turmoil. 

 

“Ah, look, Koushiro-kun. That’s Hikari-chan, Taichi’s little sister.” Sora pointed out, waving back at her. “Hello, Hikari-chan! How come you're here too?”

 

“You see, our parents had to leave early to run some errands, so oniichan was told to take care of me for the day. But he already had plans, so he let me tag along.” Hikari explained, she then turned around to look at Koushiro.

 

The boy tensed up slightly before reminding himself that this was a casual environment where he could be relaxed, so he tried to give Hikari his best smile.

 

“As I suppose you must already know, I’m Koushiro Izumi. It’s very nice to meet you, Hikari-san.” he introduced himself, reaching out to shake her hand.

 

Hikari contently returned the gesture. “Yeah, I do know. Oniichan talks quite a lot about you.” she confessed with a teasing tone. “I’m Hikari Yagami, nice to meet you too!”

 

“Are you done already or…?” Taichi interrupted their conversation, impatience clear in his voice. “And how can you two have arrived together, if you live in opposite directions?” he questioned, pointedly staring at his friends. “Did you meet up without me?” 

 

Sora and Koushiro looked at each other for a second before the girl merely shook her head, causing the two of them to blush again and avert Taichi’s glare, much to the soccer player’s fury.

 

Although Taichi himself didn't understand why was he feeling so bothered about this.

 

“...Shall we go inside?” Sora suggested, attempting to break the tense silence that had enveloped the small group.

 

“We should.” Koushiro immediately agreed. “It’d be wise to get started with your maths worksheet soon if we wish to be done before lunchtime comes around.” Sora nodded, walking towards the building’s door with Koushiro trailing after her.

 

Hikari was ready to follow them, but she paused as she noticed that Taichi was still hanging around, resting his back on the wall without any intention of moving from his spot.

 

“Oniichan?” Hikari called him, trying to catch his attention. He flinched as if the word had stabbed him, and Hikari couldn't help but frowning with worry. “...Aren’t you coming?”

 

“...Huh?”

 

“Sora-san and Koushiro-san are already inside…” Hikari shyly pointed out. Taichi blinked, disconcerted, like a bus had run over him and he was attempting to regain his senses. His final reaction was to slump his shoulders forward in disappointment. 

 

“Oh… Oh. Right. I… I’m coming.” he stammered.

 

“Are you okay?” Hikari couldn't stop herself from asking. “You’ve been acting weird ever since you woke up…”

 

“Whatever. Let’s go.” Taichi quickly dismissed her concerns.

 

“Oniichan… I bet Sora and Koushiro just happened to find each other on their way here. They didn't ditch you.” Hikari mumbled, knowing her brother all too well to know that he'd probably be thinking of something like that.

 

“Yeah. Of course.” Taichi scoffed, not convinced one single bit. It wouldn't make sense because they’d have taken different paths to arrive to the library, but even if that had been the case, that didn't explain why they both got embarrassed at Taichi’s question.

 

“I really don't think it went like that, Hikari.” Taichi said, unmistakably  _ jealous _ . “Well, it doesn't matter.”

 

Hikari bit her lip, not knowing whether it’d be better to keep insisting or not, but Taichi had moved before she had the chance to decide, so she limited herself to follow him.

 

Koushiro and Sora had already sat down on a table, discreetly whispering something to each other. 

 

Taichi scowled, making sure to cause a loud thump when he put his bag down on the table. Hikari gave him a judgemental stare, because they were supposed to stay quiet in a library, but Taichi paid her no mind as she sat down next to him, facing the other two.

 

“Taichi-san.” Koushiro spoke up. “Sora-san had already started working on her worksheet, so I'll assist her first with whatever doubts she has left. For now, please try to fill what you can do by yourself, and I’ll help you afterwards. Does that sound good?”

 

“Yeah. Sure. Fine.” Taichi nodded without conviction, lowering his head to contemplate  the terrifying amount of problems that their teacher has typed down for them to solve. He groaned, taking out his notebook grudgingly.

 

All the work he got done before losing focus completely was the  _ arduous _ task of copying the wording of the first question. He timidly raised his eyes, opting to stare at Sora and Koushiro instead.

 

“I’ll admit, this one problem can be quite difficult to understand. You didn't get it right because this one sign is supposed to be different.” Koushiro explained, pointing with his finger at Sora’s paper as he talked. “Do you understand what I’m referring to? Please read the question and information given and compare it to what you've written down.”

 

Sora did as she was told, reading everything over and over several times until her face lit up with comprehension.

 

“Ohh, of course! I get it now! Thank you so much, Koushiro-kun.” Sora thanked him profusely. “Do you like maths?”

 

“You could say so, yes. You do need to enjoy this at least somewhat if you plan on learning proper computer language.” Koushiro giggled a bit. “What about you, Sora-san?”

 

“Not really. I like drawing and doing stuff related to manual arts more, I guess.” Sora answered, pursing her lips. “Though I don’t think I’m too good at it…”

 

“I’m sure your works are excellent. I’d love to see your portfolio someday.”

 

“Ah, thank you.” Sora’s cheeks flushed pink. “It’s a shame, but I really didn't think about bringing them to show them to you… Wait, I know! If we finish early, how about I try drawing you? I don't get to draw spiky hair very often, so I want to try it.”

 

Taichi slammed his fists on the table without thinking, making the two friends stop talking to look at him, and earning another nasty glare from Hikari for being noisy.

 

“...Yes, Taichi? What’s wrong?” Sora slowly asked after a couple of seconds.

 

“Uh… I mean, nothing. I just wanted to say I’m… Going outside for a bit. I need to breathe some fresh air, I’m saturated from working so much.”

 

“Taichi-san, we’ve been here for… Ten minutes, at best?” Koushiro retorted.

 

Sora stared at his notebook with an arched eyebrow. “Saturated, you say? You’ve literally only copied the first question.”

 

“Oniichan, you haven't been working at all.” Hikari lamented.

 

Taichi tilted his head, unwillingly nodding. Okay, so maybe they had a point. But still.

 

“ _ Like I said _ , I’m already saturated.” Taichi insisted, which caused Sora and Koushiro to throw a confused look at each other.

 

That was it, that was the final strike. Taichi decided that he’d had enough of whatever was going on between those two. 

 

He abruptly stood up, ignoring their puzzled looks and merely storming out of the building, refusing to acknowledge that he was being incredibly childish and throwing a tantrum over…

 

Over what, really? What was he even doing?

 

Taichi sighed tiredly when he heard rushed steps behind him. “Leave me alone, Hikari.”

 

“Not until you tell me what’s bothering you. I’ve tried to not bring it up, to let you have your space, but it’s getting you too worked up and I can’t ignore it any longer!” Hikari yelled at him, hoping that her words would make Taichi finally talk to her.

 

“You’re the only one who thinks that something is bothering me, obviously.” Taichi narrowed his eyes, still not facing her. 

 

“You’re being too stubborn. It’s something important, right?”

 

“It’s not!” Taichi finally snapped, turning around to look at his sister with rage filling his eyes. “Just leave me alone. I clearly have nothing to do here.”

 

“But that’s just not true! You’re hanging out with all of us!” Hikari protested.

 

“Tell them I’m leaving, then! I’m done with this!” Taichi screamed, wishing that he actually knew what  _ this _ meant.

 

“But… But…” Hikari struggled to think of something that would make him stay. “Wait! You still haven’t told me what happened with Koushiro-san yesterday! Something happened, right? That’s why you’re acting like this.”

 

“Stop trying to fix my own problems.”

 

“You would’ve dealt with it already if you knew how! Why won’t you let me help?”

 

“Because I don’t  _ need _ your stupid help to figure out my feelings, geez!”

 

Hikari stilled at that. “...Feelings?”

 

Taichi’s face went pale, realising that he said way more than he’d initially intended to when he started this pointless discussion. He kicked the floor angrily, cursing himself because now Hikari probably wasn’t going to stop pestering him until he spilled his whole life story and all the actions that brought him to this point.

 

This thing was so stupid. The whole universe was trying to haunt him down today, definitely. Taichi shouldn’t have gotten up from bed, shouldn’t have played video games with Koushiro, shouldn’t have  _ kissed him _ , for God’s sake, because no matter how nice it’d felt back then, now it was just making him be all weird and confused and angry and  _ stupid _ .

 

“What feelings, oniichan?” Hikari pressed him on, just as he’d expected. 

 

“Sorry, I… I’m just going home.” he muttered, almost surprised at how exhausted his voice sounded. “Okay? Do you think you could… bring me my backpack?”

 

“...You also said we’d go out later.” Hikari said very quietly.

 

“I know. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll make it up to you somehow, okay? And I… Tell Sora and Koushiro that I’m sorry too… I just…”

 

The little girl held onto Taichi’s wrist, forcing him to remain still in place. “I think you should come back.”

 

“I don’t…”

 

“Just trust me?” Hikari begged him.

 

Taichi’s glare softened, because he felt unable to stay mad any longer, at least not towards his poor Hikari, who had only wanted to help him. “...Okay. Okay, let’s… Let’s go back.”

 

***

 

“Koushiro-kun, stop blaming yourself for Taichi’s behaviour. It’s not your fault.” Sora scolded the boy with a motherly tone.

 

“I can’t help but think so, Sora-san…”

 

“Taichi’s not the best at... expressing himself.” Sora mumbled, deep in thought. “He manages to wear his heart on his sleeve at all times, and yet, when he comes across a wall that he doesn’t know how to overcome, I’d say he kind of… Tries to avoid dealing with it.”

 

“I’m not sure if that makes me feel any better. You said it yourself, I’m a wall that Taichi-san doesn’t know how to deal with, isn’t that right? Doesn’t that just make me an obstacle, so to speak?”

 

“No.” Sora shook her head firmly. “He wouldn’t be so bothered if he didn’t care about you, I can tell you that much. Don’t put yourself down like that, Koushiro-kun.” she comforted him. “Just let Hikari-chan deal with it for now, alright?”

 

“But Hikari-san is still so…”

 

“Young?” Sora chuckled lightly. “She is, but she understands Taichi more than anyone else. She’s very mature for her age, too. It’ll work out.”

 

“I hope. I really want to apologize for him.” Koushiro sighed. “Thank you very much for helping me with all of this, Sora-san.”

 

“That’s what friends are for.” the girl smiled sweetly. “No, wait, stay still. Don’t look at me. I can’t draw you if you move your head.”

 

“Oh, right. Sorry about that.”

 

“Don’t worry.” Sora said, sticking out her tongue as she tried to copy Koushiro’s hair shapes in her paper, sliding the pencil across the page furiously, with so much strength that Koushiro was actually afraid she’d slice the paper in two.

 

Modeling for an artist was certainly… an experience than he hadn’t ever thought he’d be doing, really. Then again, one could say his life had been surprise after surprise from that very day, when Taichi rang his doorbell and befriended him out of nowhere.

 

Not all of those surprises had been pleasant ones, of course. Koushiro would be lying if he said that he didn’t feel the happiest that he’d been in a long time. He had truly come to appreciate his new friends, and the idea of going back to his old-self, who stayed alone in an empty and lifeless room with the computer light as his only companion, was absolutely  _ scary _ .

 

But maybe, what scared Koushiro the most was how much influence Taichi had over him. He was entirely conscious of it now. If Taichi asked him to join the soccer club directly, Koushiro wouldn’t be able to refuse. 

 

It was an unknown variable. Something that Koushiro didn’t know how to deal with, either. 

 

However, he’d come to understand that his heart would always be filled with those mysteries for as long as he stayed by Taichi’s side. He’d just have to learn how to live with it.

 

Learning was one of the things he excelled at, right?

 

Satisfied with that conclusion, Koushiro closed his eyes contently and tried to relax the muscles on his face, hoping that it’d make Sora’s sketching easier.

 

Sora suddenly let out a small giggle, and Koushiro was about to ask what happened (did her drawing come out funny?). Before he could do that, though, he felt someone flick his forehead with way more force than any human should be allowed to use.

 

“What was that for?!” he yelled, snapping his eyes open and nearly jumping out of his seat when Taichi’s uncomfortably close pouty face was what met him.

 

“You looked like you were sleeping.” Taichi excused himself, shrugging lightly. He lazily plopped himself where he’d previously been sitting. Hikari still stood up by the table, not sitting down like she’d done before.

 

“Well?” the girl said.

 

“I’m sorry, I guess. For acting like a dumbass.” Taichi gave some sort of apology.

 

“...And why were you acting like that?” Hikari asked.

 

“Because I’m a dumbass. Why else?” Taichi frowned, as if Hikari had asked the most obvious question in the entire world.

 

Hikari sighed, understanding that she wasn’t going to manage to get him to talk about the reasons. She was mildly pleased that Taichi had apologized, at the very least.

 

Sora took that moment to nudge Koushiro’s elbow, throwing a discreet thumbs up his way. Koushiro nodded to himself, taking a deep breath before speaking.

 

“I… I wanted to apologize too, kind of. I’m sorry I made you feel... weird yesterday, if that’s indeed the case, like I suspect. I know you’re an affectionate person and I respect that, I’m just… Not used to it yet, I suppose.”

 

“...So that was it.” Taichi whispered to himself. “Well, that’s okay! I’m glad we cleared that up.”

 

“That’s not it all, though.” Sora piped up. “Right, Koushiro-kun?”

 

“Right. Um…”

 

Koushiro grabbed his backpack, quietly rummaging through it until he found what he’d been looking for. Taichi’s eyes widened when he saw the other boy timidly pull out a small orange present box. 

 

“Sorry for not telling you. We met up earlier without you because… Well, Koushiro-kun told me over the phone what was on his mind, and I’d been thinking of getting you some detail to celebrate your winning goal the other day, so…” Sora explained, rubbing her neck sheepishly.

 

“We thought that we could kill two birds with one stone.” Koushiro finished the sentence for her. “So… take this as both a gift and an apology, if you will.”

 

“Open it, oniichan! Open it!” Hikari cheered for him.

 

Taichi was still staring dumbfounded at Koushiro’s hands, holding onto the box tightly, waiting for the boy to pick it up. His black eyes were filled with expectation.

 

Taichi gulped. His trembling fingers brushed with Koushiro’s when he reached out to grab the present, but he was still too shocked to notice Koushiro’s instant blush at the gesture, too shocked to realise the butterflies that were flying on his own stomach at the touch. 

 

He slowly undid the yellow ribbon, looking over everyone as he did so. Sora had her lips curved upwards in an affable smile, Hikari was bouncing up and down with anticipation and Koushiro…

 

Koushiro wasn’t even looking at the present.

 

His eyes were fixated on Taichi himself, and the weight of his deep stare would’ve made Taichi’s face go red in any other occasion, but now… Now he could only stare back.

 

He slowly opened the box, picking up the item inside it as carefully as he could and examining it carefully.

 

It was a simple keychain, but he understood why it held so much meaning for all of them. It had the shape of an open laptop. The iron was painted with a bright color scheme, and the screen of the computer had a cute small soccer ball drawn in the middle. 

 

“Isn’t it perfect? The soccer ball represents you and me, and the laptop is Koushiro-kun.” Sora said with a grin.

 

“The bright colors can also represent Hikari-san.” Koushiro added, not wanting the little girl to feel left out.

 

“It’s perfect for everyone.” Hikari agreed with a bubbly beam.

 

They all waited for Taichi’s reaction, expecting some excited comment, but he was strangely quiet, taking his time to stare at the keychain and run his fingers over it, as if it was the most precious thing he’d ever seen.

 

“It’s… thank you. It is perfect.” Taichi nodded, voice slightly choked.

 

“Oniichan...?” Hikari asked worriedly.

He couldn’t believe how badly he’d misunderstood  _ everything _ . He’d thought Koushiro was mad at him for what had happened, but he actually wanted to  _ apologize _ to him instead. And that morning, when he saw Koushiro and Sora walk together, he just kind of assumed that they were  _ a thing now _ , and they were hiding the truth from him, for whatever stupid reason.

 

Turns out they were hiding a present. Because they wanted to give him a nice surprise. And he was an idiot, idiot,  _ idiot _ .

 

Taichi stood up from his seat, following his impulses without pausing to consider what he was even doing. He threw his arms around Koushiro, bringing the boy close and burying his head on his shoulder. The position was incredibly awkward because of their already outstanding height difference, especially now that Koushiro was sitting down, but Taichi couldn’t care any less.

 

He felt the other shuffle a bit uncomfortably in his hold, and that’s when Taichi realised what he just did.

 

“Oh, I’m— Sorry, I forgot to ask if…”

 

Koushiro shook his head weakly. “It’s okay.”

 

He slowly returned the gesture, and it wasn’t long before Sora and Hikari had added themselves to it.

 

Today had been a rollercoaster, Taichi had to admit. He went from being in a bad mood to being in a worse mood, to just feeling tired, then stupid, and then like he needed to shove Koushiro with affection to make up for his ridiculous amount of mood swings,  _ and _ today’s morning wasn’t even over yet.

 

And he really wanted to. Taichi honestly felt like hugging Koushiro (and Sora and Hikari, of course) for the next four hours, but…

 

“I’m sorry to break the group hug, but. I kinda need to. Take a trip to the toilet.”

 

After a few seconds of pure silence, the girls wordlessly untangled themselves from the embrace, and Taichi immediately fled upstairs without even saying goodbye.

 

“Aren’t the bathrooms…?” Hikari pointed to a pair of doors in this same floor.

 

“...That’s just Taichi for you.” Sora laughed, and Koushiro couldn’t help but cracking a small chuckle as well. 

 

“Of course.” he nodded, unable to hide his amusement.

 

“Are you okay?” Sora asked out of the blue. “Like… not overwhelmed or anything?”

 

“It’s… It still feels a bit… strange, I suppose.” Koushiro struggled to find the right words to convey his emotions. “It’s not inherently bad. Simply new.”

 

“It can take us a while to get used to new things.” Sora nodded, trying to be as understanding as possible. “If it ever feels like too much you can say it, okay? Don’t bottle stuff up.”

 

“I won’t. It already took me quite a lot of courage to manage to call you so late and tell you everything… But it genuinely helped me to feel better, so I’ll have to try to get used to it. Thank you again, Sora-san.” Koushiro bowed a bit.

 

“Don’t mention it.” Sora replied softly. “But… Are you going to tell him about…” she blushed a bit. “ _...that _ ?”

 

“That?” Hikari echoed, looking at the girl curiously.

 

Koushiro’s face flushed pink as well, but he somehow kept his voice low and steady. “I… I don’t think so. I’m not really ready yet. We’re fine like this.”

 

“That’s okay. Don’t push yourself to talk about stuff you don’t want to.” Sora patted his shoulder sympathetically. “You have a lot of time.”

 

“You’re right, I do.” Koushiro breathed out. “Now… maybe we should actually finish that worksheet.”

 

“Yeah.” Sora agreed, giggling because they’d basically done  _ everything _ except that.

 

_ We’re fine like this. For now, I just want to be like this.  _

 

_ My feelings would make everything complicated. I don’t want things to be awkward anymore. _

 

***

 

The next Monday, Koushiro Izumi officially joined the soccer club.


	5. 05 - dwadling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe Taichi was like the sun, always shining, radiating with happiness. And if Taichi was the sun, Koushiro was definitely the moon, always calm and collected, but not unkind. 
> 
> They complimented each other well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! It's been like... 3 months since I last updated this story, and I must say I'm super sorry for the delay. I've had this chapter sitting around for long, but I've started school so I didn't have time or energy to finish it as soon as I would've liked.
> 
> That being said, I hope its contents make up for the long wait! And you may have noticed my username change - I figured I'd announce my comeback, and since I'm using that name on other websites, I decided to change it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter! I actually had lots of fun writing it. :3c

Taichi let his backpack roll to the floor with a defeated sigh, fanning himself with one of his hands.

 

“The weather’s starting to be really hot.” he commented, sitting down in his seat with a blatant lack of enthusiasm.

 

“That’s true.” Sora nodded briefly without looking up, eyes fixed in a page of her maths textbook. It took her a few seconds to realise that Taichi had sit next to her, and that it was him who had spoken the sentence. “Ah, good morning, Taichi.”

 

“Morning. What were you looking at with so much interest? It almost looked like you were about to shove your head against the book.” he joked around.

 

“I was reviewing, seeing if I remember everything Koushiro-kun explained us. For today’s test.”

 

Taichi shrugged nonchalantly. “He really tried hard to teach us. I’d do the same, but they’re  _ maths _ . Not really my thing, no matter how much I try.”

 

Sora let out a small laugh. “Numbers have never been your forte, that’s very much true. But it’s not like you can draw either, and your stories aren’t exactly… captivating.”

 

“Hey, but I’m good at soccer.” Taichi protested, feigning offense at the words.

 

“I think we’re all good at something, if you think about it.”

 

Taichi crossed his arms, seemingly deep in thought. “I’m good at soccer, you can draw very well… Koushiro knows his computer stuff… Hey, it’s true!”

 

“What about Hikari-chan, for example?”

 

“She’s a master at arguing with me.” Taichi immediately replied, amused. “Oh, and at keeping a immense doll stack hidden in my own room without me noticing.”

 

Sora giggled at that. “You know, most of the times she argues with you, she’s the one that makes the better points.”

 

“Aw, don’t give me that. Cut me some slack, Sora. I’m the one who’s usually right!”

 

“You’d be right… If you weren’t Taichi.” she conceded.

 

“And what does that mean?!” Taichi asked, indignant.

 

Sora limited her answer to a cryptic smile, shaking her head and returning to reading the page of her book.

 

Taichi pouted, but he saw that Sora was not interested in the conversation any longer, so he dedicated himself to kill time by looking around the classroom.

 

Most of his classmates were taking advantage of the few minutes they had left to study, frantically switching from a page to another and trying to cram inside their brains all the information they could retain. Others talked in whispers, trying to tattle each other the answers for some of the exercises.

 

And finally, there was the group of people like Taichi, who had given up entirely and were ready to accept their disastrous future with honour.

 

Well, at least, last week Koushiro had joined the soccer club. His life had been very entertaining these past few days, so Taichi was ready to resign himself to the incoming academic failure without any regrets.

 

“Maybe I should stop reading those mangas Hikari recommended me to check out. I feel they’re making me be too dramatic…” Taichi sighed, softly talking to himself.

 

Though, perhaps he talked more loudly than he thought he had, because Sora replied something to him a few seconds later. “I think that’d be a good idea. You already know how to be dramatic enough, Taichi, I’d say.”

 

“Sora, it’s our first class of the day, it’s Monday, and we’re having a  _ maths _ test in two minutes. Can’t you give me a break? Just this once?”

 

“Sorry, Taichi. Nope.” Sora grinned, clearly not sorry  _ at all _ .

 

“I hate this.” Taichi whined miserably. “Why do numbers exist? Who made up all these formulas and why do I have to learn them, huh?”

 

“Numbers exist because they are necessary.” Sora helpfully supplied. “Do you think that our existence would be possible without them? They’re everywhere, and they give sense to everything, making the world as we know it.”

 

“Now you just sound like Koushiro. One is more than enough, thank you.”

 

That seemed to catch Sora’s interest, because she set her book down and turned around to stare at Taichi directly.

 

“Koushiro-kun is unique, don’t you think?”

 

Taichi arched an eyebrow for the rather off-topic question, but he nodded without giving it a second thought.

 

His latest experience with the… Thinking thing didn’t give him good results. He remembered the mess he made up in the library last weekend, and he couldn’t help but grimacing in disgust. 

 

Yeah, no, thanks. He wasn’t looking forward to making the same mistake twice, so he’d just answer things at face value and definitely  _ not _ overthink.

 

Yeah. Better to not think. Not think.

 

“I mean, yeah, he is? He  _ is _ quite special.”

 

Sora nodded with a smile, as if she was extremely satisfied with that answer, but in that moment the classroom door snapped open, and the fearsome maths teacher walked in, carrying a pile of sheets under his arm.

 

Sora put her book back in her backpack, and Taichi felt his blood go cold. He forced himself to gulp, but his throat felt like a desert nevertheless, and he was almost sure that he’d go into a hysterical coughing fit. 

 

He sadly didn’t have bird eyesight, so he couldn’t catch a glimpse of the exam’s questions, but his classmate Sakamoto’s pale and desolated face in the front row told him all he needed to know.

 

“Taichi, separate your table from mine before they notice and scold us about it.” Sora told him. After all, they couldn’t exactly do a test if they were sitting together. Softening her voice a bit, she said, “And have a bit of confidence, will you? Koushiro-kun did help us with studying for this. I bet you won’t do as badly as you think.”

 

“They’re still  _ maths _ , Sora.” Taichi repeated blankly.

 

“Stop using that as an excuse, come on, you can do it!”

 

Taichi couldn’t help but roll his eyes in amusement. “Sora, I firmly believe it’s more likely for me to meet a giant dinosaur than to solve a maths problem properly.”

 

“You’re just exaggerating again. Seriously, drop Hikari-chan’s shoujo manga. I mean it. They’ll make you go insane at this rate.” Sora insisted, but it was clearly not serious, as she was trying her hardest to stifle a chuckle.

 

“Whatever you say.” Taichi resigned himself, unconvinced.

 

If only she’d known what that summer had in store for them, maybe Sora would’ve stayed quiet.

 

***

 

Koushiro stopped typing on his keyboard, blinking with uncertainty as he saw Sora drag an apparently catatonic Taichi across the playground. He was leaning comfortably against one of the trees in their usual spot for lunch time, but he felt almost obliged to stand up and check if something was wrong.

 

“Taichi, please, will you stop grizzling?” he heard Sora say. “What happened happened, it’s unlike you to sulk over it. Look, Koushiro-kun’s already waiting for us too.”

 

Sora made a vague gesture with her hand that Koushiro interpreted as a greeting, and he returned it with a wave of his own. Taichi suddenly perked his head up at the mention of the other boy’s name, almost like a ghost had taken control of his body.

 

“Oh no, I can’t. I can’t do this, Sora.”

 

“What are you even talking about?” Sora asked, finally losing what little patience she had left.

 

“I told you, I think— No, I  _ know _ this has been my worst exam in all the years I’ve been enrolled to this school. I can’t talk to Koushiro, knowing that he spent so much time trying to teach us and I just wasted his efforts, do you underst—?”

 

Sora opted to cover his mouth with her free hand, forcing the boy to follow her. Koushiro could only observe the scene with a mix of incredulity and amusement, eyes never leaving the two walking figures.

 

Taichi sat down and lowered his head. Sora threw him a disapproving frown before sitting down next to him.

 

“Um… Is he okay…?” Koushiro asked, pointing at the strangely quiet Taichi with only the faintest hint of worry.

 

“He apparently picked up some mangas from Hikari-chan, and now he’s acting like a dramatic anime protagonist. Well, even more than usual.” the girl explained with a sigh.

 

“I’m so sorry, Koushiro. I failed you.” Taichi simply muttered, in total defeat.

 

“You’ve been whining that you couldn’t speak to him precisely because of this during four hours, and now you’re talking?” Sora asked, and Koushiro couldn’t tell if she was genuinely irritated or not.

 

“I can’t stay silent now.”

 

“Why not, may I ask?” Koushiro was the one who made the question this time.

 

“Oh, so you  _ want _ me to stay quiet?” Taichi retorted.

 

“I think,” Sora intervened, “that it’s because Taichi is pretty much the only person capable of dragging you out of your laptop.” she took a small bite of her  _ bento _ . “But, while we’re at it, how come you started reading Hikari-chan’s mangas, Taichi?”

 

“I told you already, she practically shoved the book in my lap and forced me to read it.”

 

“Shoujos usually have romance and mushy stuff like that, though, right? I thought you wouldn’t be interested.”

 

Taichi titled his head to think for a bit, not noticing that Sora and Koushiro looked way  _ too _ interested in his answer.

 

“Well, they’re not that bad. For example, there’s this one story where both protagonists start out as rivals. They don’t get along, but the guy slowly starts being kinder and he finally falls in love with the girl.” he explained.

 

“So you liked it?” Sora pressed on.

 

“I still like adventure comics way more, but the whole romantic drama isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.” Taichi finished.

 

“Heh, you could take example from them and pick up techniques to conquer someone’s heart~” Sora commented, winking.

 

Taichi looked at Koushiro for a split second before directing his gaze to Sora once again. “There’s not any girl I like.” he firmly announced.

 

“I was saying it in a hypothetical case anyway.” Sora laughed.

 

“Oh, well, whatever. Why are you asking me all these questions, though? Guys, are you secretly into anime and you haven’t told me?”  

 

“Just curiosity.” Koushiro answered with a small grin.

 

Taichi narrowed his eyes with suspicion, though he didn’t push it and choose to quietly eat his food instead. It’d be a crime to not give his mother’s chocolate croissants the full attention they deserved.

 

They fell into a slightly unexpected silence, though it didn’t feel uncomfortable.

 

Sora and Koushiro gave each other a knowing look, but the rest of their lunch break slipped by without any other major conversation.

 

***

 

“Sorry, coach. I didn’t feel too well in the last two hours of class, so I think it’d be best if I sit out for today.” Sora said, after all their classes were over and they were about to start the official training session of the week.

 

“Then you should rest, indeed.” their coach smiled kindly. “Satou, pick up your uniform, you’re covering Sora’s place today.”

 

Taichi shoot Sora a concerned look, but her friend quickly dismissed it with a thumbs up, proceeding to plop herself down in the bench, next to Koushiro.

 

Even after he’d joined the club, Koushiro really wasn’t too keen in anything that required much physical effort, so he was benched more often than not. It didn’t mean he wasn’t bad at playing, but there were more suitable people, and he only stepped in when the team required his help, usually to practice some new formation or technique.

 

He would’ve needed to join one of the sport clubs, sooner or later, because their school’s curriculum required it, and he was glad that he’d been able to join a club where he had friends, but he still didn’t like physical exercise much, and both Taichi and Sora understood and respected it.

 

“How funny would it be if Taichi was actually quite the romantic person?”

 

“I really doubt he is.” Koushiro replied. “Liking a romantic manga isn’t exactly a reliable source to determine whether that could be true or not, Sora-san.”

 

“Don’t be so gloomy, Koushiro-kun.” Sora smiled, gently elbowing him. “Though it’s true that Taichi is… A bit complicated. He’s really direct for most things, but for some others his lips are sealed.”

 

“I think I’d say we’re all a bit similar on that.” Koushiro commented, smiling a bit. Their conversation died down before Koushiro picked it up again.

 

“I know I did ask you for advice on… Well, this whole situation, Sora-san… But I’ve been thinking that it’d be better to leave it as it is, for now.”

 

“Why do you say that?” Sora cast him a puzzled look.

 

“I like to be very confident on everything I do, and I’m afraid I’m still a bit confused at my own feelings. Besides, Taichi-san did say that he’s not interested in anyone romantically as of now.”

 

“He said he wasn’t interested in any  _ girl _ .” Sora pointed out. “Nothing about boys.”

 

“I know that, but… I don’t know.” Koushiro mumbled stupidly. “We’re friends, right? If there  _ was _ a boy he liked, I’d like to think he would’ve told us.”

 

Sora bit her lip. She agreed with Koushiro on this and he was probably right, but still…

 

She shook her head. “I understand. I’ll just say that you shouldn’t lose hope entirely, okay?”

 

Koushiro gave her a doubtful look, but he stayed silent and shook his head as well, obviously not wanting to pursue the topic any further.

 

Both teammates dedicated themselves to observe the rest of the team during the training.

 

Sora looked at Koushiro from the corner of her eyes several times, but in all occasions Koushiro’s gaze seemed to be locked on Taichi, as if he was trying to scan the boy’s mind and figure out his exact thoughts. It’d make things easier if he could do that, certainly…

 

“By the way, how did your classes go, Koushiro-kun?” Sora piped up. To keep the conversation going, more than anything, because of course Koushiro wouldn’t have had any trouble in any of them.

 

“They went quite well.” came the somewhat expected reply. “It seems tomorrow we’ll be starting some kind of project in our science class, so I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.” he explained.

 

“You really like anything that has to do with science or maths, huh?” Sora pointed out, grinning softly. “On that note though, seriously, thanks for helping me and Taichi out with studying. If Taichi has actually managed to somehow pass that test, it’ll definitely be thanks to you.”

 

Koushiro let out a small chuckle. “Taichi-san has other talents, though.” 

 

And with that he went back to soundlessly staring at Taichi, as if he was in a trance of sorts.

 

Sora understood Koushiro really well, if she was being honest. She was also fascinated by Taichi, albeit in a different way. He could seem quite insensitive and even rude at times, but he always tried to keep everyone’s interests in mind, even when he acted harshly. And he treated everyone as equals, no matter what.

 

Sora had always appreciated that he hadn’t treated her differently just because she was a bit of a tomboy, and they’d been really good friends for as long as she could remember.

 

Maybe, once you really got to know him, it was hard to  _ not _ feel attracted towards him. His everlasting grins and easy-going attitude were contagious, and if you spent time with him, life suddenly felt more colorful and lively, as if every moment had become precious just for the mere fact of sharing it together.

 

Maybe Taichi was like the sun, always shining, radiating with happiness. And if Taichi was the sun, Koushiro was definitely the moon, always calm and collected, but not unkind. 

 

They complemented each other well.

 

Sora paused her thoughts for a second. Then, what was she?

 

A small twinkling star, simply wandering aimlessly between them, or… Damn, it was harder to describe herself than other people. 

 

She shrugged mindlessly.

 

One way or another, she was one of Taichi and Koushiro’s best friends, and nothing would change that. 

 

***

 

Koushiro regretted showing up at school the next day. Just as expected, the science project that they’d started was of his liking. His assigned partner to complete the task, on the other hand…

 

Really, he should’ve known. if he searched up “bad luck” on the Internet, the results would show his picture.

 

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I probably dislike this as much as you do, if that helps?” Eriko muttered, clearly unhappy with the situation. 

 

Despite the teacher’s constant reprimands, she was still sitting with her back against the wall, taking full advantage of her seat on the corner of the classroom, and scratching her head with disinterest. An open book was resting on her lap, but she didn’t look like she was about to read it anytime soon.

 

“Eriko-san, the sooner we finish this assignment, the sooner we…”

 

“I know, I know.” the girl cut him with an exasperated look, though her voice wasn’t as sharp as when she was trying to be mean to Koushiro, which surprised him a bit.

 

The boy knew that he was witnessing a miracle when his comment actually got her to glance down at her book again. “What was I supposed to search for again?”

 

“Information about geothermal energy.” Koushiro answered immediately, his fingers still sliding across his laptop’s keyboard without taking a break.

 

“Could you be more specific, like…”

 

Koushiro blinked twice, still staring at the screen. “Like what?”

 

“Like…” she paused for a few seconds. “You know what, nevermind.” Eriko sighed and shook her head slightly, focusing on reading and taking notes on her notebook.

 

Koushiro couldn’t help but analyse her cautiously. 

 

Her sparkly blue eyes were usually cold and full of malice, but somehow, today, they looked empty, shadowed by her bangs. He noticed her restlessness, because she was constantly changing her stance, either bouncing her leg, playing with her hair or switching the way she was sitting all together.

 

Koushiro almost felt the need to ask her if she was okay, just out of politeness, but he reminded himself that they weren’t  _ friends _ . Hell, they weren’t even acquaintances on good terms.

 

It’d probably be better to just stay silent. Besides, if she was feeling unwell, she would have said so, right? Right. No use thinking about it.

 

So why was Koushiro thinking about it so much?

 

“You know, your eyes are kinda scary.” Eriko suddenly blurted out. “They’re very black. And big.” she stupidly commented. 

 

“Scary?” Koushiro repeated before he could stop himself, innerly cursing his curiosity. 

 

Eriko shrugged. “Just a bit. I dunno, it’s weird. They’re like…” she stared at the ceiling searching for the right words. “Like a pair of black holes. I don’t get how anyone can look at your face.”

 

Koushiro opted to not take that comment as an insult. Subconsciously, he realised that, for some reason, they were  _ actually _ holding a rather civil conversation, despite the fact that Eriko would’ve usually taken this chance to bother him. 

 

Maybe Eriko had some bigger goal on mind? But how could a conversation about  _ his eyes _ , of all things, cause any kind of problem? No matter how much he tried to make some sense out of it, it just didn’t add up.

 

“See, you’re doing that again. Sometimes you look like a videogame character, as if you’re spending all this time mentally going over the different routes you could take. Thinking all the time, instead of just… doing something. “ Eriko pointed out.

 

Koushiro was actually taken aback by her perceptiveness, because… he’d been, indeed, doing exactly what she described.

 

“It’s another of those things I don’t understand. Though, I guess I should think once in a while, too.” she laughed humourlessly.

 

“Is everything all right, Eriko-san?” Koushiro blurted out before he realised what he was even saying. Curse it, curse his naturally polite and worrying attitude for making him ask the question he’d been meaning to  _ not _ ask. 

 

The girl glanced up, confusion and faint annoyance written all over her face. “I don’t get why would it matter to you. And what makes you think that something’s wrong?” she raised her voice a bit, as if trying to defend herself.

 

“You’re not acting like yourself.” Koushiro replied in a whisper, finally stopping his typing.

 

He was still wondering why couldn’t he just have shut up. If he’d waited until class was over, he wouldn’t need to have this conversation, but something inside him made him want to keep talking until he discovered the truth.

 

Perhaps, this’d be the only occasion he’d ever have to talk to Eriko normally, and he felt he had to make good use of it, even if his mind told him that talking to her wouldn’t bring any benefits at all?

 

While he mused to himself, Eriko stared at him as if he’d grown two heads, before breaking out into a fit of laughter, this time genuine. “So you’d rather have me treat you badly? Didn’t know you were into that.”

 

“Into… what?”

 

Eriko’s mocking expression quickly morphed into one of regret. “Right, you’re just a kid. Forget I said anything.”

 

“Um…” Koushiro blushed a bit, out of frustration. “Anyway! I didn’t say that, I just… It surprised me. Seeing you like this, I mean…”

 

“Well, yeah, whatever. I’m really not in the mood to bother anyone today.”

 

“So something  _ is _ wrong.” Koushiro proudly pointed out.

 

“Yes, something. I guess you can say that.” 

 

Koushiro arched an eyebrow.

 

Eriko sighed.

 

“I guess it can’t be helped, huh?”

 

“I’m really curious.” Koushiro insisted, feeling a bit ashamed for pushing the topic so much. “But if you don’t want to say anything, that’s okay and—”

 

“If you really want to know so much, just wait until break time. I’ll explain the thing quickly and you get to satisfy your stupid curiosity.” she scanned the classroom with a glare. “The least people who hear it, the better. So deal?”

 

Now that sounded like a trap. Koushiro closed his eyes, suspicious. Should he really risk going alone with Eriko just to listen to her story?

 

“Maybe you’re right, Eriko-san, and this shouldn’t matter to me at all…” Koushiro muttered, barely realising that he was thinking out loud. “But it’s the first time I’ve… Well, talked to you properly… And I want to understand you.”

 

Eriko simply shoot him a half smile. “You sure are weird.”

 

The rest of the morning went by, and before Koushiro realised it, the clock was indicating that it was lunch break already.

 

He saw Eriko walk towards his desk and, for a moment, he expected to feel the well-known sweaty palms and faint fear that always invaded him whenever she approached him, but he didn’t. He managed to give her a nervous smile.

 

The girl blinked twice before plopping herself down on the desk next to Koushiro’s. 

 

“You want to stay here instead of going to the playground, Eriko-san?” Koushiro asked, seeing how she had already made herself comfortable in the chair.

 

“Oh, whatever you want, really. I don’t care.”

 

“I had planned to tell Taichi-san that I can’t have lunch with him today on our usual spot.”

 

Eriko grimaced. “I bet that if you tried to tell Yagami-senpai he’d want to know why. What were you gonna tell him, that you’re gonna have a totally normal conversation with your bully?”

 

“I guess it doesn’t sound too good if you put it like that…” Koushiro admitted sheepishly. “Aren’t you going to eat anything?” the boy asked as he took his lunch out from his backpack.

 

“I don’t have anything to eat, so no.” Eriko merely replied. She rolled her eyes at the few students that were still lingering around, picking up their stuff to go downstairs. “Damn. They’re slow.”

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, Eriko-san, why don’t you want anyone to overhear this? Is it such a bad… or personal thing?”

 

“Not everyone’s as nice as you.” she answered, and she left it at that.

 

When she saw that the class was almost completely empty, Eriko coughed a bit to clear her throat. She was bouncing her leg uneasily, looking from left to right, almost expecting something. Finally, she started to talk.

 

Koushiro had only known her furious and intimidating voice, so it felt weird to hear her speak so softly.

 

“It’s… It’s stupid, but… My home life is, let’s just say not the best, so I kinda…” she shook her head in frustration. “This is harder than I thought.”

 

Koushiro nodded encouragingly, urging her to continue.

 

“My old man, he’s always yelling. He pisses me off, but I can’t do anything about it. If I try to argue rationally, he…” she lost her trail of thought and slowly started rubbing her right shoulder, eyes squeezed in pain. Koushiro’s eyes widened when he understood the unspoken implication. 

 

“Eriko-san, that’s…”

 

“But there’s… There’s people like you, you know? People that don’t fight... ” her voice was shaking a bit and her words were becoming incoherent. “At first I really just did it to… I don’t know, relieve stress or whatever the fuck, but now I… I just…”

 

The girl almost jumped up to the ceiling when the classroom’s door suddenly burst open.

 

“Koushiro!” Taichi’s bubbly voice greeted. “Why didn’t you…”

 

His voice lost energy and died out as he noticed the other person sitting in the classroom.

 

The atmosphere shifted immediately, becoming cold and very tense. Koushiro felt Eriko tense up next to him, and Taichi’s smile dissipated entirely. His lips were a tight line, his eyebrows were curled down and his eyes seemed to be shining with rage.

 

Perhaps, on any other occasion, Koushiro would’ve stopped to admire how beautiful his eyes were. In fact, on any other occasion, he would’ve stopped to admire Taichi Yagami. 

 

Just not this time.

 

Taichi was the first one to break the silence. His voice carried unbelievable frustration. “Leave him alone. Koushiro, let’s go. We can leave.”

 

“I didn’t even do anything to bother Koushiro-kun.” Eriko said nonchalantly.

 

“Of course, you’re obviously making friendship bracelets for each other.” Taichi retorted.

 

“Taichi-san, really, we’re…”

 

“Look.” Eriko lifted her hands, exposing them in the air. “I’m doing nothing, see?”

 

“Right, because Koushiro looks so happy to be here with you. What did you do, resort to a threat so he’d stay?”

 

“You think that?” Eriko asked. “Koushiro-kun, did I threaten you? Did I make you stay here against your will?”

 

Koushiro shook his head fervently. “Taichi-san,” he started again, “I promise I’m not—”

 

“As if he’s gonna answer the truth when you could punch him right now.” Taichi cut him once more. “Look, I’m making this easy. Stop arguing with me and we won’t need to get into a fight, yeah?” he punched the empty air for emphasis.

 

That seemed to cause a reaction on Eriko, because she actually flinched and lowered her gaze. She was clearly trying to think of what to say back and, on Taichi’s eyes, she looked like the loser of the discussion. 

 

Koushiro understood why Eriko reacted the way she did, though.

He was very aware that Taichi didn’t know her story, so he wouldn’t know how deeply his words had affected her.

 

But in that moment, to Koushiro, that didn’t matter. He was mad, mad at  _ Taichi _ .

 

The girl finally seemed to get a grip on herself, because she angrily stood up from the chair. “I wouldn’t mind knocking some sense into you, if it gets you to stop bothering us.”

 

“You’re the only one bothering here, in case you haven’t noticed, you piece of—”

 

“ _ STOP IT! _ ”

 

The strength and volume of that scream shook both Taichi and Eriko, making them fall silent.

 

In fact, Koushiro himself looked very surprised. He coughed awkwardly, happy that, at least, his instinctive reaction had managed to stop them both from insulting each other any further.

 

“Like I’ve been trying to say, Taichi-san, Eriko-san hasn’t forced me to stay here. We’re just talking, you really don’t need to worry about me, alright?”

 

Koushiro had hoped that the explanation would’ve been enough for Taichi, but the boy still didn’t look convinced in the slightest. 

 

He started walking towards the pair of desks and, without any warning, grabbed Koushiro and yanked him up by the wrist. He never stopped giving Eriko a cautious glare, just to make sure she wouldn’t do anything.

 

“Stop bothering my friends.” Taichi warned her, pretty much ignoring everything Koushiro just said.

 

Eriko seemed about to talk back, but she thought better of it, because she merely crossed her arms and tilted her head, frustrated.

 

Taichi grinned in triumph. “Problem solved. Alright, let’s go, Sora must be still waiting—”

 

“No.” Koushiro simply said, cutting him with a sharp voice.

 

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Taichi finally turned around to look at the boy he was holding down. 

 

He’d expected to see a grateful smile, but Koushiro looked  _ furious _ .

 

“ _ Like I said _ , I’m simply  _ talking _ with Eriko-san.” Koushiro repeated himself, making sure to put emphasis in all the syllabes. “Privately. So, please, excuse us. I understand you’re concerned for my safety, but I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”

 

He gestured towards the door before sitting down next to Eriko once more. 

 

He glared at Taichi, keeping his eyes locked on him until the boy finally walked out of the classroom, quietly closing the door behind him.

 

After a few moments of silence, Eriko quietly piped up.

 

“...That didn’t go too well.”

 

Koushiro groaned, resting his face against the desk. “I really should’ve stayed home today.”

 


	6. 06 - effugio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _effugio: flee from, escape._  
>  The boy started to type a reply, and Sora couldn't help but smile fondly.
> 
> She knew they'd be alright. They'd definitely make peace with each other. They liked each other too much _not_ to.

There was something almost oddly comforting in going back to a rather similar version of his social interaction-less routine, Koushiro decided. 

 

He suddenly found himself with a lot of free time that he’d usually spend with Taichi and Sora.

 

Both boys could vehemently deny it all they wanted, but it was as clear as crystal that they’d had a fight. Koushiro had no problem acknowledging that fact in his mind, but it still stung — to know that their friendship had suffered a fall-out, just when he thought that he’d finally made a solid connection.

 

It wasn’t as if they completely cut contact with each other. Koushiro still assisted to soccer practice the next week, and he’d still politely greet Taichi if he happened to stumble across him in the hallway or playground.

 

However, something was keeping the air tense around them, preventing them from just patching things up like any pair of friends would do after a couple of days of staying mad at each other.

 

The boy didn’t know if it was Taichi’s prideful attitude, Koushiro’s own social ineptitude, or a mix of both factors, but the point was that he couldn’t, for the love of everything good, figure his way out of this.

 

Poor Sora had gotten caught up in the middle; she didn’t know all the exact details, though, so she was unwilling to pick a side, and merely hoped that their friends would be able to sort it out. But they weren’t making any progress at all; if anything, their increasingly small conversations sounded more strained day after day—

 

“Hey, Earth to Kou.” a voice piped up.

 

Koushiro stopped staring at his half-eaten sandwich, turning around to meet Eriko’s piercing stare.

 

Well, if he thought deeply about it, not everything about this was all  _ that _ bad. After the discussion at the classroom, as soon as Taichi had left, Eriko managed to gather up the courage to finish telling her story. 

 

She wasn’t too willing to give many details, but Koushiro got the gist of it well enough — he understood that she was going through rough times at home, and while it didn’t excuse the bullying she put him through, it  _ did _ explain it, which was enough for him to forgive her.

 

She hadn’t changed her attitude all that much, if only to keep appearances, or something. But now it wasn’t unusual for her to just appear out of nowhere and spend her lunch break with Koushiro, or even sit together with him in some classes.

 

Like she just did right now.

 

Koushiro still had some mixed feelings about the whole situation, of course, but he’d discovered that, after breaking past the rude facade and knowing that she didn’t actually mean most of her demeaning comments, Eriko was… kind of nice.

 

Not Sora levels of nice, far from it, but she wasn’t the completely irredeemable person that Koushiro had regarded her to be, so her company was quite enjoyable at times.

 

“You’re doing that again.” she complained. “Stop spacing out while staring at people. It’s weird.”

 

“I can’t help it, sometimes. You know I do think a lot.”

 

“Well, think less and act more.” as if to prove her sentence, she gently nudged his elbow. “Did you solve the Bakaichi issue yet?”

 

She always added a  _ baka _ to his name when she talked about him. Taichi only became Idiot Taichi if she was talking to Koushiro, though — in front of other students, he was still Yagami-senpai, the captain of the soccer club, and they had no personal involvements.

 

Koushiro still didn’t quite understand why did she act so secret and private about everything, always keeping up some kind of act, but he figured that it was some sort of… behaviour that she’d developed because of her circumstances. One way or another, he respected it and didn’t want to press the issue.

 

The boy merely gave a heavy sigh by answer. 

 

“Come on, it’s been, what? Like two weeks?” 

 

“Eriko-san, this is my own personal problem, thank you very much.”

 

“But I kinda caused it, so I want to fix it.”

 

Koushiro was slightly surprised by the sincerity in her words. He wanted to reassure her that they’d eventually come along, somehow, but he wasn’t sure of that, not a single bit, and he hated saying things that he wasn’t sure of.

 

So instead, he simply shrugged. “I appreciate the intention, but I’d rather do it myself.”

 

“Suit yourself.” Eriko said, dropping the topic without any further insistence, which Koushiro was greatly grateful for. 

 

She stayed around for a few minutes, but a quick look at Koushiro told her that the boy was too deep in thought to have any kind of conversation right now, except maybe answering with monosyllables, so she decided to stand up and leave him alone.

 

Which again left Koushiro with no distraction from the issue at hand. The point was, he had to do something if he still hoped to keep his friendship with Taichi, but he didn’t know  _ what _ .

 

Mainly because he wasn’t willing to throw himself under the bus. He wouldn’t have any trouble admitting that he’d talked rather rudely and he could’ve phrased some things better, but his stance hadn’t changed a bit.

 

Taichi simply had no right to barge into the classroom and try to drag him away from Eriko, specially after Koushiro had repeatedly told him that he was having this conversation out of free will. He’d hoped that Taichi would listen and leave it be, but he’d clearly been wrong.

 

There it was again. The stung of hurt and disappointment that kept taunting him every time his mind replayed the short discussion they had that day. 

 

He needed Taichi to realise his own mistake — no matter how much he tried to explain it himself, Taichi could just choose to ignore his words again. Then again, even in the unlikely case that he did realise it, couldn’t he just decide to ignore his own mind as well?

 

Well, he wasn't getting anywhere like this. It'd be so easy to simply walk up to Taichi and tell him about what Koushiro thought he'd done wrong. Then Taichi's face would lit up with understanding, and he'd apologize while a small frown clouded his face, and Koushiro would apologize as well and they'd go back to being friends.

 

Put like that, the idea sounded quite inviting. Though Koushiro had already misjudged the way Taichi would act back in the classroom — what prevented him from being wrong this time, too? What if it didn't fix anything?

 

Yeah, alright, he was royally screwed with no easy way out of this. Not that he  _ actually _ expected to find an easy way out, at least not after having cracked his head with intense musings for the past days without any successful result.

 

Ugh. He hated feeling like an idiot, but he really didn't have a solution for this.

 

Maybe he could just… Wait? Yeah, wait a bit more. Two weeks wasn't all that much time, no matter how excruciatingly slow it went for him, so perhaps they still weren't actually ready to sort things out yet. Then again, if that was the case,  _ when _ would they be ready?

 

Koushiro deserved an award for somehow managing to end up going in circles with his thoughts three times in a row. 

 

He could be doing something useful right now, like studying for the upcoming maths test (even though he didn't really need to), or finishing his sandwich (even though he wasn't hungry).

 

Ugh. Couldn't lunch break just end already? At least his brain was kept busy during classes just enough to prevent him from having a mental stalemate.

 

The gods seemed to listen to his request, because a mere couple of minutes later, a wild sea of students started to walk into the classroom, which could only mean that classes were reassuming.

 

He listened to the lectures with more interest than they deserved and quietly filled his notebook with exercises.

 

Just as he was starting to grow bored of the rather repetitive and methodic tasks, a knock was heard on the classroom's door.

 

The teacher stopped talking and reached out to open it. 

 

To Koushiro's surprise, Sora was the one to step inside the room, holding a frankly terrifying amount of what appeared to be pamphlets in her arms.

 

“Sorry for the intrusion…” she quietly excused herself as she walked in, facing all the students with a rather shy grin. “I'm Takenouchi Sora, 5th grade. Uh…” she gestured to the pile of paper she was carrying. “Me and another classmate were supposed to hand these out around the school today, but he's absent, you see? So I have to do everything by myself, and it's kinda…”

 

“Miss Takenouchi,” the teacher intervened, with slight annoyance. “I'd appreciate it if you were quick with this. I'm trying to teach a class here.”

 

Sora's cheeks flushed red out of embarrassment as everyone started to laugh under their breaths.

 

Koushiro stood up from his chair immediately. “I can help out, Sora-san, if you want.”

 

His friend gave him a grateful smile. “Thank you, Koushiro-kun.” she turned to face the teacher. “Is it okay if I borrow him? He'll return as soon as we're finished.”

 

“Sure, just hurry it up.”

 

Sora handed half of the pamphlets to Koushiro, and they proceeded to give a copy of it to everyone in his class before excusing themselves and stepping outside.

 

Sora let out a relieved sigh as soon as they were out from sight. “Thank you, you saved me in there. I was feeling so awkward…”

 

“I noticed, so I wanted to help. No need to thank me.” Koushiro reassured. Noticing that he hadn't taken a look at the pamphlets yet, he started reading one.

 

“A summer camp?” he asked, voice laced with curiosity.

 

“Yeah. Last year's wasn't very successful, or so I've heard, so they wanted to promote it this time around. The 6th grade students are busy with a trip, so our class was assigned to be the one to hand the pamphlets to everyone else.” 

 

“I see.” Koushiro nodded. 

 

“Will you be coming?” Sora inquired with a kind smile. “I'll go for sure.”

 

“I might consider it, then.” Koushiro smiled in return.

 

They started to walk towards the next classroom, but Sora didn't want to stay silent, so she kept talking.

 

“I think Taichi will be coming as well.” she said with a rather cautious tone.

 

“Is that so? Well, that's nice.”

 

“I mean, it would be nice if you guys weren’t...” she trailed off, not finishing her sentence, but she knew that Koushiro understood her anyway.

 

“Definitely.” he sighed. “I've been thinking of ways to talk it out with him, but I don't think any of them will work out. I want Taichi-san to understand why am I mad with him first.”

 

Sora actually laughed at that. “I'm sure he understands it already. He's just too prideful sometimes, but he'll probably come around soon.”

 

“I'd hope so. I doubt he takes so long to make up with his other friends if they fight.”

 

“Koushiro-kun, he's taking so long precisely because you're you. You're his best friend, so he really doesn't wanna screw this up, either.” Sora tried to reason with him, just like a kind mother would do.

 

“I can understand that.” Koushiro said in a downcast tone, and Sora decided to not push the topic any further.

 

After walking around the school building for what felt like ten times in a row, they finally finished their pamphlet duty.

 

“Phew, we're finally done!” Sora cheered as she closed the door of the last classroom they needed to visit.

 

“Indeed. We should head back to our respective classrooms.” Koushiro, ever so diligent, suggested.

 

“There's only about ten minutes of lesson left, though. I really want to wait for it to be over instead.” Sora admitted rather sheepishly.

 

“Well…” Koushiro considered both options. “I guess ten more minutes won't hurt.”

 

Sora beamed. “You're the man, Koushiro-kun. Oh, by the way, I actually wanted to tell you something.”

 

“What is it?” Koushiro tilted his head.

 

“Taichi and the others wanted to organize a party today to celebrate how good this soccer season has been for our team. I think you should come, too.”

 

“I joined the team pretty late and I haven't really done much, though…”

 

“It'd still be nice to have you around.” Sora insisted, sliding an arm around his shoulders. “I'm not gonna force you to show up if you don't want to, of course.”

 

“Well, when is it?”

 

“You should ask Taichi for all the details. He and the senpais are still sorting everything out, I think.” she said. 

 

“Alright, I'll text him, then.” Koushiro said as he took out his phone from his pocket. 

 

“Cool!” Sora nodded with a grin.

 

A few seconds later, Koushiro burst out laughing. 

 

“Huh? What's so funny?”

 

“I won't be needing to text him, it seems. He's already done it himself.”

 

To prove his point, he showed the phone's screen to Sora, who was leaning over his shoulder. There was no mistaking it, Taichi had texted him a couple of minutes ago to invite him to the party.

 

“'P.S. Come or I'll kick you with a soccer ball’.” Sora finished reading the message out loud before laughing like Koushiro had. “Sounds like Taichi, alright.”

 

“I can't believe he'd use his phone in the middle of a class just to send me this.” Koushiro shook his head in apparent disdain, but Sora noticed the upward curls of his lips.

 

The boy started to type a reply, and Sora couldn't help but smile fondly.

 

She knew they'd be alright. They'd definitely make peace with each other. They liked each other too much  _ not _ to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy! Most of you will probably have noticed this chapter is shorter than usual, and that's because I actually debated whether to write a scene with them reconciliating or not. For now I've decided to leave it like this, but I may add a last chapter with said scene if you guys want me to.
> 
> So yeah, let me know about that if you can, and as always thank you very much for checking my story out! All your support always makes me really happy!


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